All Your Perfect Imperfections (A Brallie Love Story)
by pickmeupimdrifting
Summary: A 'troubled' Callie Jacob who was freshly released from juvie begins attending Anchor Beach along with her younger brother Jude. From the moment Brandon met her, he began feeling things that he never felt with anyone else. Will it all work out for Brandon or will people get in the way? (AU, Callie is not one of the Fosters or any of that making Brallie totally ok with everyone)
1. Chapter 1

"Did you hear?" Brandon's girlfriend Talya said, sitting down next to him at lunch.

"Hear what?" Brandon asked, shoving the piece of paper he was writing music notes into the folder that was sitting on the table.

"There's a new girl and she came from juvie." Talya smirked and popped a cherry tomato in her mouth.

"Juvie?" Brandon asked, raising his eyebrows and putting the folder in his backpack.

"Yeah, she like smashed her neighbor's car or something and got landed in juvie for a few months. She, her father, and her brother came out here so they could 'start over'." she said, doing air quotes while holding another cherry tomato from her salad.

"How is it that you know so much information about her?" Brandon asked curiously, pushing his untouched lunch tray in front of him.

"What do you mean?" Talya asked frowning.

"I mean, she's been here for a day and you already know a lot more than an average person would know about someone who's new." Brandon said. "Have you even talked to her?"

"No." she said, eating another tomato. "No one's talked to her because she's like a freak."

"Just because we've made a few mistakes doesn't make us freaks." Brandon said. Even though Talya was his girlfriend, she really had no right making judgements about someone she had only heard and seen, never talked to. He tried to hint this lightly without confronting her and getting her angry again.

Talya didn't reply, instead she began eating her salad while Brandon sat silently, his mind wandering to the music room that he would be going to during study hall. His fingers itched to be on the keys of the piano, to continue to practice for his audition that would take place in a few weeks.

"Brandon?"

Brandon was snapped back to his senses, his thoughts leaving the music room. "What?" he asked, looking quickly at Talya.

"I said, 'Are you going to eat your lunch or just watch it?'" Talya asked, looking throughly annoyed with Brandon.

"What? Oh, I don't know I guess I'm not hungry." Brandon said, opening his backpack and placing the plastic wrapped sandwich in his backpack, along with the bag of chips and Coke.

"Where are you going?" Talya asked, as Brandon quickly zipped his bag up and stood up.

"What? Oh, I have to go do some things before next period." he said, casually. He bent down and kissed Talya's cheek. "I'll see you later."

Brandon walked off quickly, heading towards the exit of the lunch room. The piano was calling his name too loudly and he had enough of Talya's gossip for the day. He walked quickly towards the direction of the music hall on the opposite side of the school. The people who remained in the halls were all heading in the opposite direction and took up most of the space across, forcing Brandon to turn sideways to move through them, knocking into a few on his way.

He passed the vice principal which happened to be his step mom, sort of.

"Hey Brandon." she smiled warmly at him, forcing Brandon to slow down.

"Hi Lena." Brandon said, smiling slightly.

"Where are you heading?" she asked curiously.

"The music room." he said, Lena nodded in understanding.

"Without having lunch?"

"Not hungry I guess." Brandon shrugged.

"Huh, do you still want a ride home or are you going somewhere with Talya?" she asked.

"Umm, I don't think I'm doing anything with Talya so I guess I can ride home with you, Jesus, and Mariana." Brandon shrugged.

"Good, well, I have to be at a meeting soon so I'll see you after school." she said waving and walking down the hall in the other direction.

Brandon waited for her to walk a few feet before heading off at a faster pace towards the music room.

When he arrived at the closed door in the empty hallway, he took a second to catch his breath and relax. His heart was beating fast from practically running across the school in under a minute. As the pounding in his ears began to disappear he heard a different sound. It sounded like a guitar coming from the other side of the door. Curious at who would be in there during lunch since no one but him did, he slowly twisted the knob to the door to the room and opened it just as slowly.

In the room, sitting at the windowsill and looking out the window was a girl playing the guitar. She was strumming lightly and humming to a song that Brandon didn't recognize. Unnoticed, Brandon slowly closed the door behind him and continued to listen to the girl playing. She was quite good and Brandon couldn't work up the nerve to interrupt her.

When she reached the end of the song and played the final chord, Brandon finally spoke up.

"You're really good." he said, thinking of nothing better to say at the spur of the moment.

The girls' head whipped around and she stood up abruptly, placing her guitar down in the same movement.

"I, uh, didn't know you were in here." she said. Brandon immediately noticed her cut lip and bruised face, concerned thoughts reaching his mind. _Did she get beat up? _She had doe like brown eyes and matching straight brown hair that went down to her shoulders, and she was _very _pretty. She didn't dress like the other girls at school, instead of bright colors she wore a dark gray shirt and dark jeans.

"I got here a few minutes ago but I didn't want to disturb you." Brandon explained, pointing to the guitar. "You can play?"

"Yeah, my mom taught me before she passed away." she said, leaning on the windowsill she was sitting on.

"Well let your guitar be a symbol of her then." Brandon said, putting his backpack down by the piano bench.

The girl laughed, "Did I say something wrong?" Brandon asked.

"No, it's just you're one of the first people to not say that you're sorry for my loss or something along the lines of that." she said.

Brandon who didn't know how to respond, sat down on the piano bench.

"I'm Brandon Foster." he said, realizing he didn't know this girls name and she didn't know his.

"Callie Jacob." she replied.

"Haven't seen you around school." Brandon said, casually.

"Well it's my first day." she said awkwardly.

"Oh you're new!" Brandon said, not mentioning what he heard from Talya but made the connection that she was the girl that allegedly came from juvie.

"Yeah..."

"That's why I haven't seen you up here before." he said, making the connection.

"I don't really know where to sit at lunch so I thought I could come up here..." she said, becoming awkward again.

"Oh, well I don't mind, as long as you don't mind my playing." Brandon said motioning to his piano.

"You play?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, I'm auditioning for scholarships at different places." Brandon said, glad that someone was actually interested in his piano playing besides his moms.

"Can I hear you play?" she asked. That was another first, no one but his moms and sometimes his dad asked him to play for them. Brandon sat shocked for a second, Callie thinking that he was going to object added quickly, "That is if you want, you don't have to."

"No no it's ok, I want to." he said, turning to the keys and deciding what to play.

"I can play something I wrote." he said, remembering a piece he was writing a few months ago.

Callie watched the piano contently as Brandon tried to remember it. He began playing, starting off slow. (**A/N: I'm thinking of the song Steve's Lullaby from The Last Song, you should listen to it to know what I mean)****  
**

He played the same tune one note at a time and then began playing with both hands, picking up speed. It sounded almost sad, like someone was going through a sad time in their life. Brandon rocked slowly back in forth to the beat, like his own metronome. Callie watched Brandon intently as his whole facial expression changed as he played, his features becoming softer and more relaxed.

His playing was beautiful and he was definitely talented. She immediately became self conscious to her own guitar playing, it was nothing compared to what Brandon could do on the piano.

When the song ended, Brandon rested his hands on the piano for a few seconds before removing them from the keys.

"Wow." Callie said, fairly speechless. "That was...amazing. What was it about?"

"Oh...well, my mom and dad split up a while ago and I was upset for a while. The way the piece is written shows how I felt during that time when my parents were first split. I felt alone and upset, like it was my fault. But towards the end I learned to accept it and realize that this is how it was going to be." he said awkwardly. Brandon had never really explained the meaning of this piece to anyone.

"Did your parents get remarried?" Callie asked.

"No. My mom is going to with the vice principal."

"Isn't the vice principal a-"

"Yeah." Brandon said, cutting her off.

There was an awkward pause while Brandon and Callie sat there. The sound of the lunch bell brought them to their senses.

"Well, I better go to class." Callie said, picking up her backpack and slinging it over her shoulder.

"What class do you have next?" Bradon asked, picking up his own bag.

"Uh, math." Callie said, examining his schedule.

"Mrs. Henry?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Good I can walk you there, I have her too." Brandon said smiling.

Brandon and Callie exited the music hall and began walking towards the math classroom. Brandon did the most asking of questions, where Callie would reply with more closed off answers. Brandon didn't mind since they had just met less than twenty minutes ago, but he secretly hoped that at some point she would tell him more personal things. He couldn't help but glance at her every once in a while as they walked. She was very pretty he kept telling himself this, but felt a little guilt in doing so since he had a girlfriend.

Speaking of girlfriend... "Hey! Where did you go?" Talya said, coming up on the other side of Brandon on their way to class. She didn't have class with him but she still followed him, going in the opposite direction in which she needed to go. For some strange reason, the sudden presence of Talya annoyed Brandon, this had never happened before.

He turned to look at Callie who was looking uncomfortable by the sudden presence of Talya.

"Music class." Brandon muttered bluntly.

Talya who was smiling wide, noticed Brandon look at Callie, her smile fading. "Oh, I see you met the new girl." she said, not sound happy or enthused by this at all.

"Yeah." Brandon said bluntly again. "I have to get to class, see you later."

Talya stopped walking and watched Brandon and Callie keep walking to class. Brandon didn't even give her a backwards glance, there was still a feeling of annoyance towards her inside him and just wanted to get to class at the moment.

"Was that your girlfriend?" Callie asked, as they climbed the stairs to the next floor.

"Yeah." Brandon said, at the moment he thoroughly wished that she wasn't.

"That's nice." Callie said.

"I guess." Brandon said. As soon as it came out, he frowned. That was an unexpected thing for him to say about his girlfriend. He never sounded anything but happy when he talked about his relationship with Talya, why was he suddenly wishing that weren't dating?

"This is our class." Brandon said, pointing to the closed door of their math classroom. Callie looked at it nervously as Brandon held the door open for her. "After you." he said politely as she entered the classroom slowly, Brandon following in after her.


	2. Chapter 2

When the school bell rang to signal the end of the day, Brandon packed up his books from the table he was sitting at in the library. He had finished his math homework with minutes to spare and spent the few remaining minutes of study hall tapping his pencil on the wooden table. He looked anxiously around, hoping that he would spot the girl from the music hall in the library as well.

When she didn't turn up in the beginning of it, Brandon had done a quickly lap around the school, checking all the places you could go during study hall. When she wasn't in the cafeteria, study rooms, commons, or library, Brandon settled himself in the wooden table he was currently sitting at to get some work done.

It was very difficult to get his math homework done in an hour, not that the actual math was hard. Math was an easy subject for Brandon, but he couldn't stay focused on the problem facing him. His mind kept thinking up questions about the girl he had met during lunch. _How did she get those bruises on her face? Did she really come from juvey? Did the people there beat her up? Did she really smash someone's car? Brandon, why are you thinking up all of these questions about her?_

New people came to school occasionally. Most of them were girls and Brandon didn't give them a second thought or a quick glance at them in the hall while they were going in the opposite direction. But for some reason, he couldn't get curious questions about Callie out of his head. Couldn't his mind just relax and allow him to get his homework done? He wondered if this is how Jesus' feels when he didn't take his medicine, if it was this hard to concentrate.

Brandon slung his backpack over his shoulders and walked out of the library, heading towards the vice principals office. There was already a flood of students on their way to their cars and buses. He nodded his head and waved to his friends and people that he knew well on his way to the office. He went quickly down the stairs and emerged right near his mother's girlfriend's office.

Before he could turn the doorknob someone called his name. "Brandon!"

Brandon turned in the direction of the voice, Lena was walking quickly towards him, her bushy brown hair was bouncing behind her.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" Brandon asked an exasperated Lena.

"They just scheduled an emergency meeting with the board of selectman that I have to be at and I can't drive you home."

"What about Jesus and Mariana?" Brandon asked, frowning.

"Jesus went to Sam's and Mariana went to Lexi's." she said, opening her office door. "Do you think you could get Aiden or one of your friends to give you a ride home?"

Brandon shrugged knowing that Aiden was probably long gone by now. "I can walk home I guess."

"Oh no no! We live a few miles from school!" Lena said, as Brandon entered her office. She began rummaging around for a pen in her desk.

"I could use the exercise." Brandon said, shrugging.

"Are you sure? Do you want money to pick up food on your way back home? To get dinner or something because your mom and I won't get home until late?" Lena said, pulling out forty dollars and handing it to him.

"No it's ok. I have lunch in my bag." was what Brandon wanted to say, but Lena was already leaving her office to hurry off to her meeting.

"I have to go Brandon! See you at home!" she called over her shoulder before hurrying off to the meeting.

Brandon pocketed the money and figured he'd give it back to her when she got back from school. He left Lena's office and shut the door behind him, walking towards the front doors of the school. By now most kids had left school, only a few remained, seniors who had their cars here so they could take all the time they needed.

Brandon exited the doors of the school, feeling the cool feeling of AC leave him and being replaced with muggy, hot air. Brandon squinted in the sun as his eyes adjusted to the bright light.

He saw a girl sitting on the sidewalk of the school with her feet in the parking lot. Her backpack was next to her, with her back to Brandon. Brandon recognized the brown hair and dark gray shirt and smiled slightly as he approached the girl.

"Hey." he said warmly, putting his backpack down and sitting next to the girl. She looked startled but looked at Brandon out of the corner of her eyes.

"Hi." she said, a lot more coldly than Brandon.

"Whatcha doing?" he said, resting his arms on his knees and looking at Callie.

"Waiting for my dad to pick me up." she said, looking at her phone.

"Mind if I sit with you until he gets here?" Brandon asked, he was trying to sound friendly so that Callie would trust him better.

Callie shook her head, Brandon gave her a closed mouth smile in return. "Hot isn't it?" he said, pulling at his shirt to cool him off.

"Yeah very, especially for October." Callie said, stretching her legs out and leaning back on her elbows and closing her eyes.

"Where you from?" he asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyes snapping open and looking at him.

"Where did you live before here?" Brandon said, wondering what Callie thought he meant he asked.

"Oh, the northeast." she said. Brandon wondered why she didn't specify where. Just, the northeast. That could mean anywhere.

"So how was your first day?" Brandon asked, wanting to get as much information from Callie as he could.

"Eh." she said simply, closing her eyes again.

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Everyone looked at me like I was a freak, probably they all heard the rumor." she said.

"What rumor?" Brandon asked.

"You didn't hear?" she said, opening her eyes and looking Brandon curiously.

"No." Brandon lied.

"Well everyone somehow knows that a few days ago I was released from juvey." she said, looking at the parking lot in front of her.

"I'll tell anyone off who says that." Brandon offered.

"No don't." she said. "It's true so why not let them have their fun with it."

"Is that where you, uh, got..." Brandon motioned to his face.

Callie didn't answer Brandon, Brandon sensed that she didn't want to answer and instead decided to switch the subject entirely. Before he could ask the next question Callie's phone rang in her hands.

"Hello?" she said, answering.

"Yeah...Oh ok...Ya it's ok...Yeah I know...Ok bye."

Callie got up and put her backpack on her shoulder, "My dad can't pick me up so I guess I'm walking." she said.

Brandon got up too and put his backpack on his shoulder, "I have to walk home too, do you want to walk together?" he offered.

Callie nodded gratefully, and began walking down the road that lead to the main road. "What's your address?" Brandon asked and soon discovered that Callie lived down the street from him. They walked in silence for a few minutes, listening to each other's footsteps. Brandon kept his hands in his pocket while Callie looked down at her feet.

What interrupted their silence was Callie's growling stomach. "Are you hungry?" Brandon asked.

"No I'm fine." Callie said shaking her head.

"Your stomach says otherwise." he said, smiling.

Callie didn't reply to Brandon's claim, Brandon was too busy forming a plan in his head.

"When was the last time you ate?" he asked.

"This morning."

"What did you eat?"

"Cereal." she said.

"Hmm." he said, thinking over his plan in his head.

* * *

When they had walked a little ways towards their houses Brandon spoke up. "Come on, let's go eat." he said, nodding to the diner on their left.

"What?" Callie asked confused.

"Let's get something to eat. I'm hungry, you're hungry, so we eat." he said, starting to walk towards the entrance of the familiar diner.

"But I don't have any money." she said, hurrying after him.

"That's ok. I have plenty." Brandon said, touching the forty dollars in his pocket to make sure it was still there.

Brandon held the door open for Callie and let her go in first. He followed in after her, being welcomed by the smell of pancakes and waffles.

"Table for two." Brandon said to the waitress who directed them to a table with chairs facing one another.

"Get anything you'd like." Brandon said to Callie as she opened her menu.

"No, I really can't. I-"

"No I insist." Brandon said, examining the menu himself.

Callie, who realized that she wasn't going to win this argument, glanced through the menu in front of her, telling herself that she would replay Brandon once she had the money.

After ordering their food and getting their drinks (Brandon got Coke while Callie got a water), Brandon told Callie a story about how he used to come here a lot when he was younger with is dad after his late night shift as a cop.

"So this guy walks in and orders a key lime pie, and is casually eating at the table next to us." Brandon said, causing Callie to smile for the first time. She had a really beautiful smile that boosted Brandon's confidence. "And he just like passes out or something and his face went right into the pie, splattering whip cream and pie bits EVERYWHERE." Brandon said, causing Callie to laugh.

_She has a really amazing laugh too._ Brandon thought, laughing himself. Brandon examined how Callie's eyes became squinted when she laughed and how it showed off her perfect teeth. He felt warm inside, and he was sure that it wasn't because of the food that he was going to eat.

Callie made Brandon feel something he hadn't felt before. Not with Talya or his family, it was strange, but Brandon liked it. It made him feel good. Like he was on top of the world.

"You know, back where I used to live, I was at McDonald's with my dad and my brother, and this guy came in." Callie started telling a story, still laughing. "And he ordered fifty chicken nuggets and two large boxes of fries. I remember him sitting at the booth alone and staring at the food for a few seconds and then began stuffing it all in his mouth. He must've finished all of them in less than five minutes, it was insane!" Brandon laughed along with Callie who broke out in a fresh fit of laughs.

The waitress came by and set their food down in front of them, still laughing, they began to eat. Brandon had gotten chocolate chip pancakes with home fries, Callie had gotten a cheese omelet with bacon. Brandon smiled and reached across to take a piece of Callie's bacon.

She caught him and slapped his hand away. "Hey! That's mine!" she said, smiling.

"But I'm paying!" Brandon said, laughing again.

Callie gave Brandon a closed mouthed smile and passed over a pice of bacon which Brandon took with his mouth. "So you like bacon." she said, while he ate the bacon.

"I forgot that mine didn't come with bacon!" Brandon said defensively, still grinning widely.

Callie rolled her eyes and began eating her omelet. Brandon smiled at Callie as she looked down at her plate, cutting up her omelet. The same warm sensation traveling through his body as he looked at her. Talya was wrong about Callie, she wasn't a freak from juvey, she was a really beautiful girl who was really amazing once she warmed up to you.


	3. Chapter 3

When Brandon arrived at home after a lunch/dinner, the house was empty. It was only 4pm and the blazing sun made Brandon want to seek the cool shelter of his house the moment they left the diner. Callie's house was fairly small compared to Brandon's but Brandon didn't notice until Callie pointed out that it was, but even then he didn't mind.

"It's small." she had said, when her house came to view.

"It's a nice house." he said, admiring the gray green house with evergreen shudders.

When Brandon walked Callie to the door, they both stood awkwardly at her porch. "Well I'll see you at school I guess." she said, reaching for the doorknob.

"Yeah I'll see you." Brandon said awkwardly and rubbed his neck.

Callie nodded and stepped inside her house, leaving Brandon alone on her porch. He stood there for a few seconds, thinking over the days events, before heading towards his own house.

The freedom of being home alone was that he could practice his piano without having to wear those headphones which made his ears hurt after a while. Brandon ran up the stairs two at a time until he reached his room. He threw his backpack on his bed and sat down at his keyboard, pulling out the connected headphones and throwing them aside.

Sitting in front of him on the piano stand was the piece he was supposed to be practicing for his audition. He pushed it aside and instead replaced it with blank sheet music and took out his pencil a sudden inspiration coming to him.

He played and he wrote and he played some more and he wore down his eraser from changing his mind on the notes and he played and played and wrote until the sun began to set and a car pulled into the driveway.

Once the headlights of a car pulled into the driveway, Brandon spring from the piano bench. He stuffed the sheet music that he was so inspired to write under the music bench, putting the audition music in it's place. From there he reconnected the headphones and jumped on his bed. Brandon ripped open his backpack and pulled out his civics book and homework. He opened the book to a random page in the cent and grabbed the pencil sitting on the piano just as the door opened.

"Brandon!" his mother, Stef called up the stairs.

"Yeah?" Brandon called back.

"We're home!" she said. Brandon heard three sets of feet moving about the house. We, obviously meant Jesus and Mariana as well.

Brandon checked his planner to see what page his Civics homework was on and hurriedly flipped to that page that his homework questions were on. He heard footsteps come up the steps and within seconds his mom was standing in his doorway.

"Hey honey." she said, her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was still in her cop uniform.

"Hey mom." Brandon said, looking up from the book.

"How was your day?" she asked, looking around his room.

"Oh you know, same old same old." he said.

"Did you have dinner?"

"Ya I ate at the dinner." Brandon said.

"Ok. Well if you get hungry I'm making Mac and cheese for Jesus and Mariana if you're interested." she said, before leaving for her own room.

Brandon pulled his lunch from earlier today out of his bag. He opened it and took a bite, Jesus would probably eat all the Mac and Cheese anyway. While eating, Brandon continued to do his civics homework, his least favorite subject. He sat staring at the final question he was supposed to answer, not having a clue on how to answer it.

Bzzzt.

His pocket vibrated. Brandon retrieved his phone from his pocket to see a message alert from Talya.

Hey :) are you coming over? My parents aren't home ;)

Brandon knew exactly what she meant by this and if he had gotten this text a few days ago, he would've been already out the door by now. But as Brandon read it over for an eighth time, he didn't want to go see Talya. He didn't want her to get suspicious or hurt her feelings either so he replied:

Sorry Talya I have a ton of homework :( plus I need to help Mariana with her math. Maybe another time

After he sent the message he wondered if there would be another time and if there was, if he actually would want to go. At the moment whenever Talya was mentioned, or her name appeared on his phone screen, Brandon felt annoyed. He wondered if it was the fact that she had called Callie a freak when she obviously wasn't and that by tomorrow he would be fine or if he was starting to lose interest in her.

Brandon didn't stray on debating this for too long, the front door of his house opened again and Brandon heard Lena faintly talking. He stood up from his bed, planning to go down and give Lena the $17 in his pocket and promise her that he'd pay her back.

As he ran down the stairs he overheard Lena talking to his mom about something that caught his attention.

"I met the new neighbors today." Lena said, Brandon stopped at the foot of the stairs, listening in.

"Oh did you?" Stef asked, Brandon heard her stir the Mac and cheese in the pot.

"A man named Donald Jacob and his two kids Callie and Jude. They both started going to Anchor Beach today." Lena said happily.

"Callie Jacob is it?" Stef said, curiously. "Is she Brandon's age?"

Brandon felt his heart beating faster, wondering what his mom would say.

"Yes." Lena said.

"I've met her."

"You did?" Lena asked, shocked.

"I had to visit the juvey up here, she had been transferred there when her brother and father moved." Stef said. "I had arrived just as a fight was being broken up."

"A fight involving Callie?" Lena asked.

"Yeah, a few of the other girls had beaten her up. Cut her lip up and bruised her face. It was the day if release I think, wanted to give her a going away present."

Brandon could feel Lena wincing.

"Poor girl." Lena said. "I think we should invite them over for dinner sometime."

"Lena you want to invite everyone over for dinner." Stef said over the sound of the fridge opening. "Besides, Callie was obviously in juvie for a reason, I don't want her influencing Brandon."

"Influencing? The school checked her over, I think she's just misunderstood." Lena said.

"Look can we talk about this later? It's time for dinner." Stef said. "Mariana! Jesus!"

Brandon could hear footsteps from above him and decided he would make his appearance in the kitchen since Jesus or Mariana might call him out for eavesdropping.

"Oh hi Brandon, you want some dinner?" Stef asked, reaching for a bowl.

"Uh, no thanks, I just came down to give Lena the change from money she gave me." Brandon said to his mom and held out the money to Lena.

"Why did he need money?" Stef asked Lena.

"I couldn't drive him home and all of his friends had gone so I gave him $40 so that he could get some food on his walk home." Lena said.

"You needed to spend $23 on dinner at the diner? Usually it's less than that for one person." Stef said suspiciously to her son.

"Oh I met up with Talya and paid for her dinner." Brandon lied.

"Well that was very sweet of you." Stef said, looking convinced.

"Oh good I'm starved." Jesus said entering the kitchen, shortly followed by Mariana. They both took the bowls that Stef had filled for them and went to sit down. Lena took her own bowl and followed them in as well.

"I'll pay you back." Brandon said as she walked away.

"Oh no need Brandon!" Lena said casually.

"Are you sure you don't want any?" Stef asked Brandon a final time. Brandon shook his head and Stef poured the remaining Mac and cheese into her own bowl.

Brandon who didn't want to stand awkwardly in the kitchen anymore ran back up to his room to finish his homework.

At 3am, Brandon rolled over again, trying to get comfortable. He couldn't sleep and it was very annoying. No matter which position he tried to sleep in, the sleep just wouldn't consume him. Brandon sighed in frustration as he looked at the clock. Maybe he shouldn't have drank that Coke so close to his bed time. That must've been what was keeping him up.

He turned to look out his window, looking at the stars through the tree leaves. He heard the breathing of four others faintly coming from the other rooms. He closed his eyes and thought about things that usually helped him get to sleep.

Talya, the piano, the guitar... They were just a few things that Brandon thought about as he fell asleep. But tonight was different.

The thoughts that entered Brandon's mind were mainly about Callie. He wondered if she was up too, thinking about him. He doubted this. It was a stupid thought. But most of Brandon's thoughts were stupid at the moment. He imagined breaking up with Talya, in a few different scenarios. He imagined Callie laughing like she did earlier. When she laughed, you didn't notice the bruised face or cut lip.

Brandon sat up in bed and swung his legs over his bed to stand up. He crept towards the piano bench. He lifted the top and took out the sheet music he had written earlier. He took the pencil sitting on his bedside table and wrote at the too in big letters to the unnamed song, MY 3AM THOUGHTS.

He looked down and smiled at the music before putting it away and getting back into bed to try to fall asleep for a few hours.


	4. Chapter 4

At school the next day, Brandon didn't see Callie. This disappointed Brandon a lot more than it probably should have but Brandon didn't notice. She didn't show up in the music room during lunch, leaving Brandon alone to work on practicing. He didn't practice his piano though. Instead he sat on the same windowsill Callie sat at the day before. Instead of doing anything productive, Brandon sat silently watching the beach and the kids sitting at the grassy slope eating.

Brandon's phone went off, a message alert appeared on his screen. It was from Talya, which was usually most of his messages lately.

You lied to me about helping Mariana? I just asked if she needed help and she said she never asked you to help her and you weren't busy at all last night! Why did you lie to me?

Brandon stared down at his phone and shrugged, locking his phone and putting it in his pocket. He leaned his head back to touch the side of the window. His phone went off again a few minutes later.

Brandon I know you're there! I'm coming up to the music room and if I see you, I'll just ask you in person.

Yeah which is what you should've done in the beginning, Brandon thought. He picked up his backpack and quickly left the music room, trying to avoid his pissed off girlfriend. He ran down the stairs and towards the boys bathroom, someplace she wasn't allowed to be in but he was. He entered the empty bathroom, glad that it was empty.

He checked his phone, Talya was probably arriving at the music room now to find it empty. He decided to head to his next class and thanked god that Talya wasn't in it. He left the bathroom and looked both ways before hurrying towards his P.E class.

When the bell rang, Brandon put the lemon bars that he had made in culinary, into his backpack. They had a very large amount of powdered sugar on them so Brandon made sure to wrap them with a heavy amount of aluminum foil.

Lena, who had texted him in the middle of class saying he had to take the bus home, left Brandon heading towards the school bus with the number 42 on it.

As Brandon entered the bus, there were kids already on it. Jesus and Mariana were the only two that Brandon knew. He greeted them and say down at the seat a row behind them.

"Brandon do you agree that turkey and chicken are totally different things?" Jesus asked Brandon. He had obviously walked in on a debate between Jesus and Mariana. This was not the first time that this had happened.

"Uh, I don't know, I guess." Brandon said.

"See Mariana!" Jesus said.

"Whatever. It's the same taste." Mariana said, crossing her arms.

"Did Talya ask you if I helped you with the math homework today?" Brandon asked Mariana.

"Yeah, why did you lie to her or something?" Mariana asked. Brandon pulled out his phone and showed her the messages that Talya had sent.

"Oh...I would've backed you up if I knew." she said, apologetically.

"It's ok." Brandon said, leaning back in his seat.

"Sounds like you're ignoring her." Mariana said.

"What?"

"Brandon do you still like her?" Mariana asked curiously.

"What? Yeah of course!" Brandon said, but it didn't sound very convincing.

Mariana crossed her arms looking unconvinced. "Whatever you say." she said as the bus began to move.

When they got home, Jesus ran up to his room to play Xbox while Mariana called Lexi. Brandon took a piece of computer paper and wrote in pen on a hand sized piece.

I'm not a big fan of lemon bars but I thought you might be. Be careful it's messy.

-Brandon

He looked down at the note, he had tried his best to make his penmanship legible. He hoped the person he was giving the lemon bars to would be able to read it.

He took the lemon bars out of his bag and placed them on a paper ate and covered it with plastic wrap. They looked really good but he thought someone else would like Jen and Brandon was in a generous mood.

He silently left the house and placed the note on top of the lemon bars. He quickly walked down the street, turning onto the gravel driveway of the gray green house. Brandon walked quickly up the porch steps and placed the lemon bars and the note down on the welcome mat.

He straightened up and rang the doorbell. The second his finger left the doorbell he turned and jumped over the railing of the porch and into the hedges. He slowly brought his head up so he could see the door.

Callie opened the door and looked around. She was about to close the door when her eyes caught sight of the lemon bars. She bent down and picked it up, taking the folded piece if paper off of the plate and read it.

She had turned around and went back inside before Brandon could see her reaction. Did she like them? Does she think I'm a creep now? Brandon thought. His heart began beating faster as he thought of Callie being disgusted with Brandon's offering.

He slipped out from the hedges and ran down the lawn of her house and down the road back to his own house. Brandon slowed down and came to a stop when he recognized the red car in the driveway. Talya's car.

Brandon turned on his heels and ran the opposite direction, back towards Callie's house. He was in no mood to talk to her even though she really hadn't done anything wrong. It was Brandon who had lied to her, but he wasn't feeling very guilty about it like he thought he would.

A boy bouncing a basketball down the road came into view. He had short brown hair and looked a lot younger than Brandon. With one hand he was bouncing a basketball and the other he was eating something that was powdery and yellow. A lemon bar.

This must be Jude, Callie's younger brother. He recognized him from school, he had seen him in the halls.

"Hey." Brandon said. The boy turned around, his upper lip was covered in powdered sugar. He caught the basketball and wiped his face.

"Hi." he replied. He looked a bit like Callie but not much.

"Are you going to the basketball court?" Brandon asked.

"There's a basketball court in the neighborhood?" The boy asked.

"Yeah I'll show you! I'm Brandon by the way, Brandon Foster." Brandon said as he began to walk with the boy who switched directions and began following Brandon, bouncing the basketball again.

"I'm Jude Jacob." Jude said, finishing the lemon bar.

"I think I've seen you at Anchor Beach." Brandon said as they walked. "Was that a lemon bar?"

"Yeah I would've offered you some but it was really good. My sister gave me one, I think she made them at school but I'm not sure." Jude said, frowning.

"Is your sister Callie?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah, do you know her?" Jude asked.

"Yes I do. She's really nice and is excellent at guitar."

"That's funny." Jude said, frowning more as they arrived at the basketball court.

"What is?"

"Are you sure it was her because she hasn't touched a guitar in years. Not since our mom passed."

"I'm pretty sure it was her." Brandon said.

"She smashed her guitar after our mom died." Jude said. "Hasn't touched one until now I guess."

"Huh. So do you want to play basketball?" Brandon asked. "I'll go easy on you."

They played one on one for a while. Even though Brandon must've been two feet taller than Jude, Jude was quick and small making it easy for him to maneuver past Brandon and score.

Jude was a lot more open than Callie. He laughed a lot and told Brandon more about his personal life. Brandon answered any questions Jude had and even though Brandon went easy, Jude still was beating him by a good eight baskets.

The sun was beginning to set as they ended their game and started to walk home. Brandon hoped that Talya had left by now.

Jude was in the middle of telling Brandon about his first day of school yesterday when someone called his name.

"Jude!"

Brandon squinted at the shadowing figure running at them.

"Callie?" Jude asked, the figure suddenly pulling him into a hug.

"I said be back in an hour. You had me worried sick!" Brandon recognized Callie's voice.

"It's my fault I wasn't keeping track if the time." Brandon said, feeling guilty.

Callie let go of Jude and looked at Brandon. "Well in glad he was at least with you." she said.

"I'm sorry that I kept Jude longer than he was supposed to." Brandon said apologetically.

"It's ok Brandon, you didn't know. I should've told you." Jude said, as the three of them began walking towards their houses.

When they arrived outside of the Jacob's, Brandon said goodbye to them and watched them enter their house. By now it was pretty much dark, the cicadas were chirping loudly along with the crickets.

Brandon noticed that Lena was home, he knew he was in trouble since he didn't tell anyone where he went. At least Talya was gone.

When Brandon entered, Mariana walked up to him. "You're lucky I covered for you, play along." Mariana said. "Brandon's back!"

Brandon followed Mariana into the kitchen. Lena was making stir fry and looked up at Brandon when he entered.

"Brandon! How was Aiden's?" Lena asked.

Mariana gave him a look to tell him to play along. "Oh it was good." Brandon said.

"Did you eat at his house or are you hungry now?" Lena asked.

"I didn't eat there." Brandon said, sitting down at the island.

"Well dinner will be ready soon, I'll call you down when it's ready." Lena said. Brandon got up to go up to his room, Mariana followed behind him.

"You owe me." she whispered to Brandon as he went up the stairs.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next three weeks of Brandon leaving every dessert he made at Callie's door, Talya finally caught Brandon on his way to Science class. Brandon, prepared to be slapped across the face braced himself when she approached him. But when he didn't feel the stinging slap, he opened one of his eyes.

Instead, Talya kissed him right in the middle of the hallway outside of English. Shocked by Talya's actions, Brandon backed away in time to see Callie walk by on her way to her next class. She must've seen Brandon and Talya but her face showed no legible emotion.

Was she jealous? Brandon thought. Brandon was dumb founded as he asked Talya what happened.

"You're not mad at me?" Brandon asked.

"No! Why would I be mad?" Talya asked smiling. She glanced at Callie's retreating back, her smile becoming a smirk.

"Well we haven't been spend much time together lately." Brandon said, trying to give her an excuse to be mad.

"Oh that's just a schedule thing! It isn't your fault!" Talya said.

Brandon who had to go to class said goodbye and walked into the classroom, wondering what just happened. This wasn't like her at all.

When he arrived home later, preparing to take the blondies he made to Callie, still confused of the days events, Mariana came running into the kitchen holding a flyer for homecoming.

"Homecoming is coming!" she said excitedly, waving her flyer around. "The theme is masquerade!"

"That's so cliche on so many levels." Jesus said, rolling his eyes. He put his backpack down on the island chair and pulled out a bag of chips.

"Maybe you can take Lexi since she's your girlfriend and all now." Mariana said, reading over the flyer.

Brandon didn't hear Jesus' response. He was already out the door with the blondies on his way to Callie's. He was sure Jude would like them the very least.

As he arrived to the door and put down the plate on the door mat, the front door opened, scaring Brandon and making him jump. He straightened up to see Callie in the doorway, looking at him. Her cut had disappeared and her bruises making her even more pretty than when Brandon first met her.

"Uh, sorry I-" Brandon started to say but Callie cut him off.

"Brandon all this is flattering and all but you have a girlfriend and I don't want to start drama anymore than I already have." Callie said, exiting her house and starting to walk towards her porch steps.

"I'm doing it to be friendly. Besides, those were for Jude." he said, playing it off cool even though he felt like a deer in headlights. He followed Callie down her porch steps and to the edge of the driveway. Callie looked down the street as if waiting for someone.

"Well I don't think my boyfriend would appreciate it. He may get the wrong idea even if your girlfriend doesn't. But I'm pretty sure she does mind." Callie said.

"B-boyfriend?" Brandon said in disbelief. "Who is it?" A strange feeling growing in the pit of his stomach.

But before Callie could answer a car pulled up to the edge of their driveway. The passenger door opened to reveal Wyatt, a boy in Brandon's science class. Brandon never gave much thought to the quiet boy with long sandy blonde hair and plaid shirts he always wore.

A feeling ran through Brandon. A strong knot formed in his stomach as Callie opened the passenger door and got in, leaning over to kiss Wyatt.

"Brandon." Wyatt said, although it wasn't very friendly.

"Wyatt." Brandon said in the same tone back.

Callie waved to Brandon as Wyatt drove away. Brandon stared open mouthed at the car until it disappeared from view. After a few seconds the feeling Brandon felt turned into intense rage. He picked up the plate with the blondies and began walking back to his house, chucking his blondies into the woods and yelling after he did so.

He didn't return home at first. He instead ran to the park in the neighborhood where the basketball court was, wanting to get his mind off things.

He was glad when he found the basketball court was empty, he didn't want to see Jude at the moment. Brandon walked to the center of the court and laid down, spreading out his legs and looking at the clouds drift by.

It was very comforting until his brain started thinking of nasty things.

What do you think Callie and Wyatt are doing? Brandon thought.

Probably off somewhere making out or having sex. Brandon's conscious responded. Brandon slapped his head furiously to try to clear his mind of thoughts like that but it only made it worse. His mind just wanted to torment him in every way possible.

Admit it Brandon. Brandon's conscious thought. You've been denying it for too long and you can't anymore.

Fine! You're right! I like Callie! Brandon thought. But it doesn't matter because she's dating Wyatt!

Maybe if you would've admitted it to yourself sooner than you could have something. His conscious said.

Well it's too late now. Brandon thought and closed his eyes in frustration. He felt the breeze tickle his hair as he tried to calm down.

Brandon was more angry with himself than anything else. His mind wandered to Callie's eyes that twinkled when she smiled, her brown hair that she sometimes wore in braids or wavy, her laugh that made Brandon feel warm inside.

Talya wasn't nearly as good as Callie but why did it matter now? She was dating Wyatt. Besides, Brandon's family liked Talya better because she didn't go to juvey, Brandon and Talya were the it couple of the school. But Talya got jealous often, was an open book that confronted people if she was upset and was controlling which was what Brandon disliked. Callie was easy going, hard to figure out, and carefree. A lot better... But why should he care? She has Wyatt now.

He kept telling himself the same thing over and over as he walked home.

Get a grip Brandon she has Wyatt now. It's your own fault.

"Woah what's wrong with you?" Jesus asked, looking at Brandon as he walked in the door.

"Nothing." Brandon said, running up the stairs, his hands balled in fists. He slammed his bedroom door behind him and paced his room quickly, anger still boiling through him. He jumped on his bed and pounded his pillow until the anger went away, becoming sadness. He cried loudly into his pillow which was muffled and wasn't heard by anyone else in the rest of the house.

"Brandon, honey. Dinner is ready." Lena said a few hours later from the other side of the locked door.

"I'm not hungry." Brandon said angrily. The tears on his face had dried and he was sitting cross legged on the ground with his back on the side of his bed.

Lena didn't answer for a few seconds but then asked, "Did something happen at school that you want to talk about?"

"No." Brandon responded. It wasn't a lie, what upset him didn't happen at school.

After a few more minutes of Lena trying to coax Brandon out of his room, Lena gave up and went down for dinner, leaving alone Brandon in his dark room.

He sat there and wiped his nose, and got up from the floor. He crossed his room to his piano bench, took the recently finished and perfected piece of music from it's place.

He stared down at the words "My 3am Thoughts" and in one final moment, ripped the paper to shreds and threw it in the trash can.


	6. Chapter 6

I'm really upset that someone else was casted to be Brandon's love interest on The Foster's... Brallie forever. Hopefully this relationship will be like a Talya relationship because that was a very small amount of Brallie.

At least it's someone that I'm ok with being his love interest. The character is named Lou and she's gonna be his new girlfriend I guess. So I guess she'll be a part of this story as well :/

LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT THE EPISODE AND THEORIES FIR NEXT SEASON!

* * *

Monday.

"Brandon! Come on! You've been in your room all weekend you have to go to school." Stef said, rapping her knuckles on Brandon's door for the third time this morning. She knew something was wrong with him, wondered why he was keeping himself locked away in his room. Something had obviously happened, if it was between him and Talya or his friends, something had happened.

Brandon hadn't come down from his room all weekend and refused to eat much of anything. Stef would walk by Brandon's room and put an ear to the door. Sometimes he was crying, other times he was playing his piano very quietly. Everyone in the house was concerned for Brandon. Stef and Lena decided to let Brandon try to work it out over the weekend but wouldn't keep him from going to school.

When Brandon didn't respond, Stef knocked with her fist. "Brandon! It is time for school! You are not skipping!" she said, prepared to take the lock pick from on top of his door to get into his room. "If you're not out in five minutes I'm opening this door."

Stef walked back into the bathroom to brush and dry her wet hair. Mariana and Jesus were downstairs eating breakfast while Lena was getting dressed in their room. Stef waited for any sound of movement from Brandon's room. A few minutes later the door of Brandon's room opened slowly and Stef heard the sounds if bare feet on the wooden floors drag their way to the bathroom.

Brandon appeared in the bathroom doorway. Saying he looked like a disaster was an understatement. His hair was disheveled, he was still wearing the same clothes from Friday when they last saw him and he smelt horrible.

He squinted in the sunlight, "Monday already?" he asked Stef.

"Time flies. Get in the shower you smell horrible. You have ten minutes to get showered and dressed for school. I'll have someone make you some toast." Stef said, taking her hair dryer out from it's plug and heading towards her room.

She left Brandon to shower and get dressed hopefully. He did look terrible and she was considering letting him stay home if he wasn't in presentable shape in ten minutes. But then again he couldn't run from his problems.

When Brandon emerged from the bathroom with slightly damp hair, it seemed that he was going to get his act together for the day. He confirmed this again when he showed up downstairs wearing a light blue shirt with a white t-shirt underneath, jeans, and combed hair.

He sat silently eating toast with strawberry jam, not interacting with anyone in the kitchen who watched him with concern. In fact, Brandon didn't seem to notice that anyone was paying any attention to him. He ate his toast and got up, asked when they were leaving and walked to the car.

Brandon slammed his locker closed on that same Monday and started walking to math. He didn't feel well at all and he hadn't even seen Callie yet. He hoped that he wouldn't have to see her, or that some how she would fail to show up to class. But he was wrong as he reached the top of the steps. His heart sunk as he saw Callie and Wyatt kissing in the hall but thought he deserved it since he did the same. But why did that matter? Callie didn't like him and never did. He averted his eyes as he walked into class, tuning Callie's giggles out.

Math was grueling since they were in pairs and the teacher had to pair him and Callie together. They sat in silence for a few seconds until they began working on the problems.

Callie was actually fairly good at math. She wasn't one of the people who copied everything Brandon wrote. But after a while of Callie's perfume filling his nose, Brandon couldn't hold the burning questions back.

"What do you see in Wyatt?" Brandon said suddenly. Callie looked utterly startled and looked at Brandon trying to form words.

"What do you see in Talya?" she countered, looking back down at her paper and finishing the math formula.

"I asked you first." Brandon pressed. Callie sighed and looked up at Brandon.

"We have a similar background." she said.

"Meaning?" Brandon asked, anger boiling through him.

"Outlaws, Brandon." she said simply and smiled slightly. "We're just outlaws."

"Outlaws how?"

"It's hard to explain. Why do you care so much?" she asked.

"I'm only wondering." Brandon said. "But is that seriously the only reason you like him? Because he's an 'outlaw'"

"No. He's also very nice, sweet, and caring." Callie said.

"I hear he abuses puppies." Brandon spat angrily before he could hold back.

"A rumor that isn't true." Callie said.

"How do you know?"

"I think I would know what my boyfriend is like by now." Callie said, Brandon cringed at the word.

"What is your problem Brandon? I don't give you a hard time about Talya." Callie asked angrily.

"Well would you have taken an interest me if I had dumped her?" Brandon said angrily, unable to control the words coming from his mouth. Word vomit.

"What?" Callie asked, shocked and confused.

"If I dumped Talya for you would you have complained then?"

"Brandon you're making no sense."

Brandon realized he had said too much. He let things slip that he shouldn't have and he couldn't stay around for anymore questioning from Callie. He stuffed his books into his bag, he left in a hurry from the classroom.

"Mr. Foster, where are you going?" his math teacher asked.

"Stomach bug." Brandon said and left the room without another word. He walked quickly through the halls and down the steps right up to the door marked,

Lena Adams, Vice Principal

and knocked urgently.

Brandon heard footsteps on the other side if the door, then Lena opened.

"Brandon, why aren't you in class?" Lena asked confused.

"Can I come in?" Brandon asked. Lena noticed how Brandon had returned to the state he was in this weekend. She held the door wide for him, allowing him to walk in and sit down at one of the squishy chairs facing the desk.

Lena walked to her desk chair and sat down, looking with concern at Brandon.

"What seems to be the problem?" she asked as Brandon sat there looking at his feet.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone what I'm going to tell you? Not mon or anyone?" he asked.

Lena was confused by his request but nodded, curious to what he had to say.

"You know that girl Callie?" he asked Lena. Lena nodded.

Brandon began explaining everything that happened since he met Callie. How he actually took her dinner, how he had been avoiding Talya, how he left food at her doorstep all the time, and how she was now dating Wyatt. He left out that part of the song.

Lena sat silently as Brandon ranted about everything and how confused he was by what he was feeling and how angry he was now.

"I know it's all my fault and that I should've said something to her and broke up with Talya but I was stupid." Brandon said, tears threatening to spill down his face. It was heart breaking for Lena to watch. Brandon was obviously in pain, she had never seen him cry before either. She always thought Brandon was tough and pushed through, but from what she saw, Brandon was emotional too.

When his rant finished, he waited to listen to Lena's answer. Already a half an hour had passed, it only seemed like a few short minutes.

"Brandon if you like Callie as you say do, I don't understand why you're dating Talya still." Lena said, looking at Brandon.

"I don't either but I mean, I didn't realize I had to break up with her until it was too late. Why bother now?" Brandon said disgustedly.

"What if this Wyatt and Callie thing doesn't last?" Lena asked. "If this is a short term thing."

Brandon didn't look Lena in the eye as he thought about this. "Maybe you should break up with Talya, that way she can find a boy that feels for her what you feel for Callie."

"You're probably right." Brandon said. "But then I'll be alone. I'll have to watch Callie with Wyatt."

"Brandon you're 16. When I figured out who I was, that I was a lesbian, I didn't have a relationship for a whole. But that's ok now because I have your mother who is amazing." Lena said. "Brandon high school relationships don't last until marriage very often. Callie probably isn't the one for you as Wyatt probably isn't the one for her."

"But Callie is the one! I feel different with her!" Brandon said angrily.

"Maybe you do Brandon. Just wait it out a little while, I know Wyatt, he hasn't been at school for long, he moves a lot. Maybe he'll move soon."

Brandon felt a little better at this and smiled slightly.

"But for now, you need to figure things out between you and Callie." Lena said.

Brandon and nodded and stood up. "Thanks Lena. I'm going to go talk to her." Brandon said, feeling better now.

"Glad I could help Brandon. If there's anything else you need just ask." Lena said.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Brandon picked up his bag and headed towards the library to do his homework and maybe run into Talya on the way to break up with her.

He left Lena's office and walked to the library to do some homework. He didn't see Talya and figured he would break up with her after school. As he spread out his English homework, someone tapped him firmly on the shoulder.

Brandon turned to see Wyatt towering over him. "W-Wyatt." Brandon said, surprised to see him.

Brandon stood up from his chair which was probably a bad idea as he was pushed hard into a shelf of books. His back hit the books hard, shocked at what Wyatt was doing.

Wyatt, looking angry, approached Brandon and whispered harshly. "I heard that stunt you pulled in math. Did you forget I sit right behind you two? Quit fucking up Callie's feelings and stay away from her ok? You've done enough." Wyatt said. He turned to leave but turned around hastily.

"Oh and here's your fucking homework." he said, shoving a paper in his hands.


	7. Chapter 7

**From: Talya**

_Hey Brandon :) want to come over and study? :)_

**From: Brandon**

_Actually can we meet somewhere, it's kind of important.  
_

**From: Talya**

_Umm yeah sure. Did something happen?_

**From: Brandon**

_No, I just need to say something._

**From: Talya**

_Um ok, do you want to meet at your house?_

**From: Brandon**

_Sure._

Brandon set his phone down and took a deep breath. He had to break up with Talya, it had to be done now. Brandon sat in his empty house, in his quiet room, listening to the ticking of his clock. He tapped his fingers on the desk, waiting for the sound of Talya's car to pull into his driveway. Sure enough, Brandon could hear the song "Call Me Maybe" from down the street, growing louder as he heard a car coming closer.

Taking this as his cue, he stood up and quickly walked downstairs, making it down just as the doorbell rang. Brandon quickly opened the door to his smiling girlfriend (er, exgirlfriend in a few minutes). "Hey!" she said, smiling wider.

"Hi." Brandon said faintly smiling.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"Well, er, I think it's best if you stay outside." he said, Brandon put a hand on the door, prepared to use it as a defense weapon in case Talya took the news badly.

"Oh...okay." she said, Brandon could tell she was feeling suspicious.

"Look Talya, I don't think this is going to work out." he said, finally coming out with the truth.

"Y-You're breaking up with me?" she asked shocked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but I don't feel the same way as I used to." Brandon said awkwardly.

Talya's smiling face fell and she frowned. "Since when?"

"I don't know a few months ago? I thought it was a phase and that I would like you again."

"It's Callie isn't it."

"What?" Brandon asked confused.

"You like Callie."

"No I don't I-"

"Brandon I see the way you look at her. You never gave me those looks. You always try to talk to her, even if it means ditching me. Face it Brandon you're in love with the freak." she said angrily.

"I'm not in love and she isn't a freak!" Brandon said, getting offended by what Talya called Callie.

"Look at you defending her." Talya said. "I knew she was trouble, well guess what, she's dating Wyatt now so you can't do anything about it."

"I don't like Callie!" Brandon lied.

"Oh please, everyone heard what you told her in math, you practically shouted it." Talya said crossing her arms.

"H-How did you-?"

"Things spread around school fast." she said. "Maybe you should watch your mouth and your feelings. Wyatt should've beaten you up there in the library. He only didn't because of his parol officer. But I don't have a parol officer."

Brandon, utterly shocked by all this didn't see coming what happened next. Talya had lifted her hand and slapped Brandon hard across the face. To say Talya was girly was true, but she could pack a punch. The slap winded Brandon, not hurting him at first until the pain sunk in. He backed into his house and shut the door, hearing the ignition to Talya's car as he grabbed his face in pain.

Brandon yelled out in pain, feeling the tender skin from where he had just been slapped. There was another knock at the door, tears stung at Brandon's eyes as he opened the door again.

"WHAT!" he yelled, at the person at the door, thinking it was Talya.

It wasn't Talya. And no it wasn't Callie either, don't get your hopes up. It was Jude. He was shocked and holding an orange basketball in his hands.

"Are you ok?" he asked worriedly.

"What? Oh yeah I'm fine." Brandon said, looking at Jude. "Listen, never date girls until you're in college." he said jokingly.

"Wait can I help you?" Jude asked.

"Not really, but you can come in if you want." Brandon said, opening the door.

After getting a pack of ice and pressing it to his face, he offered Jude a brownie that his mom had made last night. Jude accepted it and ate it silently, watching Brandon as he winced with pain.

"So you're the person who's been leaving us desserts?" Jude asked.

"What makes you say that?" Brandon asked.

"Well, at first I thought it was that guy Wyatt when he started coming around a week ago when my dad wasn't home but I figured out that he can't bake for his life when he and Callie tried to. I only assumed it was you since you're the only other person she talks about." Jude said casually.

"She talks about me?" Brandon asked interestedly.

"Well, she talks more about Wyatt now but before she would always tell me about the funny things you said and smile. I thought you guys were going to be a couple, but I guess not." Jude said.

"Why did you think we were gong to be a couple?" Brandon asked, sitting down next to Jude.

"Well, whenever you left a dessert and a note, she would smile. Like continuously smile, she never really did that before. But then when you left those cookies, Wyatt was there and he saw you. He kind of got mad at Callie and thought that she was like cheating." Jude said.

"Cheating?"

"Yeah I think she liked you. She said you had a girlfriend though and shortly after she started seeing Wyatt after they worked on an English project. But don't tell her I said this, but I like you better than him. You play basketball, he doesn't do anything. Plus his hair is longer than Callie's which is weird." Jude said.

Brandon smiled at what Jude said but was internally punching himself in the face. Callie liked him? But he was too stupid to just break up with Talya before it was too late.

"That's funny, I didn't think Callie liked me."

"She's funny like that, she hides her feelings."

"Do you think that she and Wyatt will last?" Brandon asked, anxiously.

"To be honest I have no idea. But I hope not, I like you and her together. You were the first to make her feel really happy in a while." Jude said.

There was another knock on the door. Brandon stood up to answer it, leaving his ice on the table.

"Hi is Jude here...woahhh, what happened to your face?" Callie said, taking a look at Brandon's red face.

"It's nothing I-" Brandon began to say.

"Brandon broke up with Talya and Talya slapped him!" Jude yelled from the kitchen.

"Yeah...that..." Brandon said awkwardly. He stepped to the side to allow Callie to walk in. "Jude's in the kitchen." he said, simply.

Callie glanced at Brandon again and walked towards the kitchen where Jude's voice came from. Brandon followed quickly behind Callie into the kitchen.

"Hey Jude,**(Beatles reference, check)** I thought you said you were going to play basketball?" Callie said, a lot like a mother. She pushed his hair back gently and rubbed his forehead.

"I was, but Brandon had just been slapped by Talya." Jude said, pointing to Brandon.

"Do you want another brownie Jude?" Brandon asked quickly to try and change the subject.

Jude nodded as Brandon put another large piece of brownie on his plate.

"What about you Callie, do you want one?" Brandon asked, looking at her. She shrugged, Brandon assumed that as a yes. He cut an equally large piece of brownie and put it on a plate and sat it down in front of Callie.

"Are you ok?" Callie asked, pointing to her face.

"What? Yeah I'm fine, it just stings." he said casually, trying to act tough in front of Callie as he put the brownie pan away.

"Why did you break up with her?" Jude asked, even though Brandon had already answered the question before.

"Just wasn't feeling it anymore." Brandon said, shrugging.

"Did you make these?" Callie asked.

"No, my mom did." Brandon said, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"Well they're very good." she said, taking another bite.

"Thanks I'll be sure to tell her." Brandon said, faintly smiling.

"Oh shit." Callie said, looking at the clock 3:27PM. "Wyatt's going to be at the house in three minutes, come on Jude we better go." she said, getting up and pulling on Jude's hand.

"Can't I stay here?" Jude whined.

"No Jude." Callie said.

"It's okay with me." Brandon said.

"Please!" Jude said.

"No, Wyatt wants to take you somewhere."

Jude sighed and rolled his eyes. "Bye Brandon." he said angrily.

"Thanks for the brownies." Callie said as they left the kitchen. Brandon felt a pang in his chest of sadness, she was off to see Wyatt again.

"Bye Jude." Brandon said, as he heard the door close.

He picked up the brownie Callie didn't finish and dumped it in the trash, along with the empty plate that was Jude's. He rinsed the plate and put the dishes in the dishwasher, still a bit upset of what happened. But it was his fault, and he knew it.

Callie liked Brandon before she dated Wyatt. She only started dating Wyatt because Brandon was dating Talya. If he had listened to his heart and broke up with Talya, he and Callie could be dating. The thought of this made Brandon mad that he could've done something. He smaller his fist on the wall in anger as he walked up to his room.

She just slipped right through his fingers.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys, this story is doing daily updates but in order for it to be daily I need ideas from you! Just PM me an idea or leave it in the reviews. I hope you like the story so far!**

**-Audrey**

* * *

The next week, the only thing the school talked about was homecoming. Packs of girls walked by in the hallways, talking energetically about their dresses and who asked them to homecoming or who they hoped would ask them to homecoming. The school was making a bigger deal about it than previous years.

_"All students from grades 9 to 12 should buy their homecoming tickets at lunchtime. No students under 9th grade are permitted to go." _the announcement said every morning leading up to the day. Brandon was not at all enthused by going to homecoming and put off buying a ticket until the last day, and he wasn't even the one who bought it.

"Here Brandon." Lena had said, handing him one of the three tickets she was holding. Brandon took the ticket from her, the words "Anchor Beach Homecoming Dance" was written in bold on the gold ticket. "I think it's best that you go and be more...social." she said, as Brandon continued to look at the gold ticket.

"Oh, uh thanks." Brandon said, taking out his wallet and placing the gold ticket in with his money. Brandon had recently come to terms with himself that Callie had someone else and that he probably was not going to be with her. He wasn't over her that was for sure, but he did sort of put his feelings aside at the moment and became a lot more happier. People noticed that he had returned to his previous state before he was upset. He smiled a lot more and seemed a lot more cheerful. Lena was the only one in his family that knew about why he was feeling so down and was glad to see that Brandon was feeling better about Callie. Stef on the other hand just assumed Brandon was feeling upset about things with Talya since after he had told the whole family at dinner that he had broken up with her, he seemed a bit happier afterwards.

Brandon didn't want to go to this dance, but that was before he learned that Callie wasn't going, neither was Wyatt.

Callie didn't show up to the music room at lunch time anymore. This was a bit upsetting for Brandon but he assumed that she was going to see Wyatt now instead of come up to the music room to play guitar. But Brandon had other things to worry about, such as how his piano audition was a day after homecoming. Meaning tomorrow. Brandon had mastered his piece very well but was still stressed and nervous about it. He couldn't focus as much on his schoolwork and when the school day finally ended, Brandon wanted nothing more than to be at home.

He got on the bus and sat in the back where Jesus was. He didn't say anything to Jesus since Jesus was plugged into his music and tapping the beat on the seat in front of him. Brandon sat down in the seat next to him and put in his own headphones. He watched as Jude entered the bus. He caught Brandon's eye and waved at him, Brandon waved back. Callie entered the bus shortly after Jude and walked to the middle of the bus, leaving Jude with his friends in the front.

Brandon thought this was a perfect opportunity to go and apologize to Callie for getting Wyatt mad at him and for being an asshole. Brandon rose from his seat, leaving his backpack behind and walked up the aisle of bus seats to where Callie sat.

"Uh, hey." Brandon said, sitting down at the seat across from her. Callie looked at Brandon and turned in her seat a bit.

"Hi Brandon." she replied. "Something you need?"

"Look, I haven't had a chance to apologize for being an asshole in math class that one day. I didn't mean to upset Wyatt either." he said apologetically.

Callie studied Brandon for a moment and nodded, "It's ok." she said simply.

"Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No it's ok. I'm fine." Callie said.

"Okay, well if you need anything, you know my number." Brandon said, pulling himself up from the seat and walking to the back where his backpack was. He felt better about himself for apologizing and the fact that Callie accepted it. He returned to listening to his music feeling a lot better about himself.

* * *

At 6:45pm, Brandon was standing in front of the bathroom mirror, adjusting his black tie and looking at his suit in the mirror. He hoped that nothing would happen to his suit since this would be the same suit he would wear to his audition tomorrow. His insides twisted as the thought that in 24 hours he would be going to his audition.

"Brandon! Time to go!" Lena called up the stairs.

"Coming!" Brandon called back, giving his outfit a one last fix, before exiting the bathroom.

He ran down the stairs and made his way to the door where Jesus and Mariana were already waiting. Jesus had slicked his hair back and was wearing a similar black suit but with a maroon tie. In his hands he held a corsage which Brandon assumed was for Lexi, his girlfriend. Mariana was wearing a green dress and turned out no one had asked her.

"Are we all ready to go?" Lena asked. Since she was the vice principal she had to go to the dance to watch it.

The four of them exited the house and made their way to the car. Brandon sat in the front and shut the door quickly, the sky outside was a bright pink and orange. Lena got in while Jesus and Mariana got in the back, getting their seat belts on.

The drive over was a bit quiet. They listened to the hit radio station and Mariana sung along to the music. Brandon leaned his hand on the car window. Homecoming didn't seem like much fun, in fact, he wished he had told Lena that he didn't want to go and to refund his ticket.

When they arrived at the school, the four of them got out and walked up to the school. The loud bass could be heard thumping through the walls of the school. Students laughing and talking to one another entered through the front doors of the school.

"Lexi!" Jesus called, running up to a girl in a pink dress. Mariana followed Jesus to go to talk to her best friend, leaving Brandon and Lena to walk up to the school together. Brandon put his hands in his pockets and pulled out his entry ticket and handed it to the girl collecting tickets.

"Have a good time." she said smiling. Brandon nodded and entered the school and made his way to the dance.

There were people dancing everywhere. Most people were wearing black dresses or suits. A lot of people were dancing to the music or standing around the dance floor and talking. Brandon glanced awkwardly around for someone that he wanted to talk to. He spotted someone that he didn't expect to see, Callie was standing beside the dance floor watching the people dance.

Confused, Brandon approached her. She was wearing a pretty black dress and her hair was pulled back in curls.

"I thought you weren't going." Brandon said, standing beside Callie.

"I wasn't." she replied, crossing her arms. "But my parol officer said it would be good if I was more social."

"So all you have to do is show up?" Brandon asked.

"And dance I guess." she said.

"Thirsty?" he asked, reaching to the table behind him and taking two glasses of punch. He held one out to Callie who took it and thanked him.

Brandon turned around and grabbed a grocery store cookie. It was white and had cheap frosting on it that if you had too much made you sick. They were cheap but Brandon was hungry since he didn't eat dinner before he left.

"Where's Wyatt?" Brandon asked curiously.

"He couldn't make it. He works the night shift at McDonalds." she said.

"Ahh, McDonalds sounds good right about now." Brandon said. Callie laughed and sipped her punch.

Brandon stayed by Callie's side throughout the dance. They mostly stood around and talked to each other. Brandon occasionally said hi to someone he knew. He spotted Talya dancing with one of the guys on the football team. Talya was crowned homecoming queen while the same football guy became homecoming king.

"Looks like she's already over me." Brandon chuckled to Callie.

"You don't seem to mind." Callie said.

Brandon shrugged, "Do you want to dance?" he asked.

"What?" Callie asked confused.

"Dance. The dance is ending soon, did you want to dance for a song?"

"Brandon I really-"

"Come on!" Brandon said, pulling Callie out onto the dance floor.

Brandon pulled her a little ways before turning around and began dancing stupidly to get a reaction out of Callie.

Callie laughed at Brandon doing the chicken dance. "Stop!" she said, pushing Brandon playfully.

"What am I not a good enough dancer for you?" Brandon asked, dancing even worse.

Brandon just stop!" she said, laughing still.

Brandon smiled as the song switched suddenly, a slow dance song coming on. Brandon stopped dancing and stood awkwardly with Callie.

_"What would I do without your smart mouth? Driving me in, and you kicking me out." _The song began.

Brandon held out his hand, "Um, still want to dance?" he asked.

_"You got my head spinning, no kidding, I can't pin you down."_

"Brandon I don't think Wyatt will like-" Callie began, shaking her head.

"Just as friends. If he gets mad I'll take the blame, after all. You do need to dance." Brandon smiled.

_"What's going on in that beautiful mind? I'm on your magical mystery ride."_

Callie took Brandon's outstretched hand, Brandon pulled her in and placed a hand on his hip. Callie looked at Brandon, who smiled slightly at her.

_"And I'm so dizzy, don't know what hit me, but I'll be __alight."_

Brandon began leading Callie in the dance. They moved slowly, it was a bit awkward at first, but Brandon didn't remove his eyes from Callie who occasionally looked away.

_"My heads underwater but I'm breathing fine, you're crazy and I'm out of my mind."_

Brandon made a goofy face to remove the awkwardness between them. Callie smiled as they continued to dance. There were many couples around them who danced as well.

_"Cause all of me, loves all of you. Love your curves and all your edges. All your perfect imperfections."_

_"Give your all to me, I'll give my all to you."  
_

_"You're my end and my beginning, even when I loose I'm winning."_

Brandon sang along to the song softly, as Callie watched him.

_"'Cause I give you all of me, and you give me all of you."_

_"How many times do I have to tell you, even when you're crying you're beautiful too."_

_"The world is beating you down, I'm around through every mood"  
_

_"You're my downfall, you're my muse, my worst distraction, my rhythm and blues, I can't stop singing, it's ringing, in my head for you."_

Brandon really liked the song that was playing and told Callie that as well. "Yeah it's a nice song." Callie replied mildly.

_"My head's under water, b__ut I'm breathing fine, y__ou're crazy and I'm out of my mind"_

_"'Cause all of me, loves all of you, love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections"  
_

_"Give your all to me, I'll give my all to you, You're my end and my beginning, Even when I lose I'm winning"  
_

_"'Cause I give you all of me, And you give me all of you, oh"_

_"Give me all of you Cards on the table, we're both showing hearts Risking it all, though it's hard"_

Brandon smiled again at Callie as the dim lights shined off her face. "You're wearing makeup." he said smiling.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. It's just you never do. I like it." he said simply.

_"'Cause all of me, loves all of you, love your curves and all your edges, all your perfect imperfections"  
_

_"Give your all to me, I'll give my all to you, You're my end and my beginning, Even when I lose I'm winning"  
_

_"'Cause I give you all of me, And you give me all of you"_

_"I give you all of me And you give me all of you, oh"_

As the song ended, Brandon and Callie stood their awkwardly. This was usually when the boy kissed the girl but Brandon knew it wasn't right. Instead, Brandon held out his hand in a friendly fashion.

Callie shook his hand as Brandon said, "Well it was nice dancing with you."

"You too." she said simply.

They said their goodbyes and parted their ways towards the exit since the dance was drawing to a close.

Jesus caught up with Brandon and hit his shoulder in a brotherly way. "Nice job Brandon. That girl was hot." Jesus said referring to Callie.

"Yeah I know." Brandon replied, as they headed off to find Mariana and Lena.


	9. Chapter 9

**Hellllooooooo you guys! Thanks so much for all your reviews and everything! It means so much to read them, it literally makes my day!**

**Anyway, I'm doing this a little bit earlier than usual but that's only because my school has a dance and I have to get ready for that soon so I'm just sitting here and thought "Why not update?" so here I am typing this for you guys because I know you love that I do.**

**So here's another chapter of "All Your Perfect Imperfections" hope you enjoy :)**

**-Audrey**

* * *

The next day, Brandon woke up feeling a lot happier than he did on most days. It was Saturday, which was good. But for some reason he woke up at 9am, a lot earlier than when he normally would sleep in. But then he remembered that it just wasn't any Saturday, it was audition day. The happy feeling in Brandon's stomach was replaced with a twisting knot, like his stomach was being wrung out like a dish towel. He felt nervous, was he ready for the audition? Or was he going to forget the notes and make a fool of himself.

Brandon got up and moved towards his piano, making sure not to step on the creaky floorboard so that he wouldn't wake anyone up. He put on his headphones and sat on the piano bench. He placed the tips of his fingers on the notes and examined the notes on the sheet music in front of him. He frowned in concentration and began playing, the notes coming from the piano reached his ears. He smiled at the fluidness of the song and how it came together. But it needed some work before the audition tonight.

"Brandon, honey, you've been on that piano all day. I think you're ready for your audition." Lena said, at the doorway of Brandon's room at 5pm. Brandon had been perfecting his piece all day, only taking breaks to eat and go to the bathroom. Brandon didn't reply, he couldn't hear her since his headphones were plugged in and probably turned up pretty high. Lena crossed Brandon's room and lightly tapped him on the shoulder.

Brandon, startled by the touch, ripped off his headphones and turned around. "What the he-, oh hi Lena." he said, realizing who it was.

"Brandon your audition is in an hour and a half. I think it's time to start getting ready, like take a shower." Lena said, crossing her arms.

"It's five already?" Brandon asked, turning to look at his clock by his bed. He was surprised at how long he sat in front of the piano.

"If you're hungry before you go, we're having hamburgers." Lena said.

"Oh no thanks, I'm actually not that hungry." Brandon said, noticing how he actually felt sick instead of hungry. He stood up from the piano bench and passed Lena to head towards the bathroom to get ready.

After a long shower, Brandon styled his hair so it wasn't as messy as he usually wore it and got on a white dress shirt which he rolled the sleeves to. He put on the same black tie from the previous night and dress pants and shoes before looking at himself in the mirror. He looked presentable right? This is what was appropriate to wear to go to an audition.

He nodded and exited the bathroom and made his way downstairs. His family was in the dining room eating hamburgers and looked at him when he walked in. "Well I'm going to head out." he said to his family. They couldn't watch since it was a private audition. Brandon didn't know if this was better or worse. A few people watching him or a lot of people? The knots in his stomach told him that either way it would be nerve racking.

"Are you sure you don't want a bite to eat before you go out?" Stef asked, pointing to a burger that looked really good. Brandon shook his head, not feeling hungry still. He checked his watch, 6:12PM, his audition was at 6:30PM. He said his goodbyes and left, taking the keys to the car, on his way to the audition.

When he entered the car he sighed and turned on the car. His insides were churning worse than before and he felt really sick. He backed out of the driveway and turned down the street towards the music school. On the drive down the road towards the main one, Brandon glanced at Callie's house which had Wyatt's car outside of it.

He slowed down and squinted as he saw something fishy. Wyatt was outside with Callie saying something to her, but he didn't look happy. He was using angry hand motions and occasionally angrily pointing behind him. Brandon rolled down his window and called out to the shadowy figures, "Everything ok?"

Wyatt stopped and looked at Brandon, "You!" he said, walking towards the car.

"Woah woah! What's going o-" Brandon started to say until a fist came through the open window and punched him hard in the face. Totally stunned, Brandon pulled a hand to his face, a similar feeling from when Talya got him in the same place but about fifty times harder. Before Brandon knew what was going on, the car door was open and Brandon was pulled out onto the street. His back hit the hard pavement, his ears ringing from the blow. But that wasn't the only punch that Brandon was going to receive and he learned that quickly as Wyatt put his knees down on either side of him and began punching him continuously in the face.

Brandon pulled his arms up to shield his face while Wyatt punched his forearms and hands while Callie screamed at him to stop.

"Wyatt! Stop it!" Callie screamed, trying to pull Wyatt off of him.

"I. Told. You. Not. To. Touch. My. Girl!" Wyatt said each word followed by a punch.

"STOP IT! You're going to kill him!" Callie screamed.

"Serves him right!" Wyatt said.

The punches were wearing down on Brandon and he couldn't find the strength to punch Wyatt back even though he desperately wanted to. Darkness began taking over him, the sounds of Callie screaming at Wyatt to stop was fading away, until he couldn't see or hear anything.

* * *

Brandon felt wetness on his face, it was very cold. Brandon wanted to wipe it away, it was too cold and made him shiver. When he tried to wipe away the wetness on his face he found how much his arms hurt. He closed his eyes harder and tried to lift his head. He opened his eyes slightly. Where was he?

The walls were a soft lime green and he was laying on a bed, fully clothed in his dress shirt, pants, and shoes. He didn't recognize the room he was in which made him begin to panic. He sat up slightly, his arms aching and his head throbbed in pain. He felt as if his brain had a heartbeat. He reached for his head to find a wet washcloth on his head which was covering a pretty raw cut. He touched the cut, it stung pretty bad from just touching it lightly.

Where was he?

He heard footsteps from outside the room and the door opened. Jude peeked in and Brandon looked at him stunned.

"He's awake." Jude said and quickly left. Brandon still confused, listened as Jude's footsteps ran away. He tried to get up but his back hurt too much to. A few seconds later, Jude returned to the room quickly followed by Callie.

"Whose house am I at?" Brandon questioned Callie and Jude.

"Listen Brandon, you can't tell anyone Wyatt beat you up." Callie said seriously. "He could go back to juvie for what he did and his parol officer doesn't want anymore trouble."

Brandon listened as Callie explained the story that he was going to have to tell his moms and the police. If it was anyone else telling him what to do to cover up someone he would've called them crazy and told his moms what actually happened. He was furious with Wyatt and what he had done. But for some reason, he wanted to listen and do whatever Callie said.

"I called your moms and they're on their way, remember what I told you ok?" she asked nervously.

"I have one condition." Brandon said.

"What's that?" Callie asked.

"Please stop dating Wyatt." Brandon said seriously.

"I know I know, I'm not. He's a bit dangerous." Callie said.

"I just don't want him to do this to you."

"He won't."

"He might, I don't want that risk."

Callie looked at Brandon and only tore her eyes away when there was an urgent knock on the door. Soon, three pairs of footsteps were hurriedly walking towards Callie's room where Brandon lay.

"Brandon!" Lena said, upon seeing Brandon in the bed.

"Hi." Brandon said, as his moms walked towards him.

"What happened to you?" Stef asked, looking throughly mad.

"Are you mad at me?" Brandon asked Stef.

"Of course not. I'm mad at whoever did this to you." Stef said.

"Well, I was on my way to the audition and I was at the stop sign just down the road and then this guy punched me through the window and beat me up. I couldn't see who he was since I was shielding my face." Brandon explained.

"Are we going to open a police investigation?" Lena asked Stef seriously after Brandon had just repeated the story Callie told him.

"No, there isn't enough evidence, no eye witnesses and Brandon doesn't even know what he looked like. It's a good thing Callie found him." Stef said.

"She's a life saver." Brandon said, smiling.

"Well, I guess we should get him home? He might need some stitches, look at that cut."

"Whoever it was had a pretty sharp ring or something on." Stef said, examining the wound and pulling her hand away when Brandon winced.

Callie who stood in the doorway looking nervous offered to help Brandon into the car. Brandon began to stand up with the help of Callie they walked to the door.

"Thanks Brandon." Callie whispered so that only Brandon could hear.

"Of course Callie." Brandon said encouragingly, even though deep down he wanted to murder Wyatt.

"You owe me." he said, as he got into the car.

"I know." she said, closing the car door for him.

* * *

When Brandon got home after a trip to the ER with a freshly stitched wound and a white wrist cast since it turned out he broke his right wrist. Brandon went up to his room and removed the ruined white shirt that was stained a reddish in some places from his blood. He changed into pajamas and got into bed.

He glared at his cast.

This meant he wouldn't be able to play piano for a few months.

Well fuck.

Stef and Lena entered his room a few minutes later, "Brandon." Stef said.

"Yeah?" Brandon said annoyed.

"I called the music school and told them what happened." Stef said.

"And?" he replied.

"Well, since you won't be able to play piano for a few months since you broke your wrist, you can't audition for their school."

Brandon sighed in frustration and covered his left hand over his face. Why didn't he just say it was Wyatt? He almost did until Callie's face flashed in front of him, he made a promise to keep quiet and this way she might date him if he kept his word.

Besides, what use would it do if he ratted Wyatt out? It wouldn't fix the situation.

"Well...we'll leave you to sleep." Lena said, clicking off the light and closing his door.

Brandon reached for his phone and typed,

**Broke my wrist, can't play piano for a few months... got six stitches. See you at school**

and sent it to Callie. He rested his phone on his chest, it buzzed a few seconds later.

**Oh god I feel so horrible. I'll make all this up to you. **she replied.

Brandon quickly typed, **No no, it's not your fault. I'm fine. Honest.**

**Can I stop by tomorrow? **Callie typed.

**Yeah sure. Why?**

**Because I feel terrible!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hellooo! Sorry this is so late of an update I was at Divergent and wasn't able to update until just now!**

**I hope you all are enjoying the story, more Brallie to come!**

**-Audrey**

* * *

Brandon woke up with a start the next day. Sunlight from the sunset was streaming through his window and hitting his face, blinding him almost. He squinted in the sunlight and sat up in bed, his covers shifting around him. He looked confused around to his alarm clock which read 6:45PM. Had he really slept this long? His throat felt as if he had swallowed sand and the sweat he was drenched in felt cool on his skin from the cool air coming through his open window.

Brandon made a grab for his phone only to find the bulky cast on his wrist. He reached with his other hand to grab his phone, frustrated at the immobility of his right. 2 new message notifications. Brandon read both of them, both from Callie.

**Hey Brandon! Can I stop by today?**

**Oops that was awkward running into the vice principal at your house! So sorry about what happened :( I'll come by another time.**

He threw his phone back at his bedside table and kicked his covers off of him in the same movement. Brandon stood up and stretched, his back making a satisfying crack before he turned for the door of his bedroom.

More orange sunlight was streaming through the windows of other rooms and shining rectangles on the floors. Brandon walked past them and slowly made his way down the stairs. His arms were still very sore and the stitches in his head that were covered by a bandage felt like someone was burning him.

"Mom?" Brandon called out, walking into the kitchen. A yellow post-it note caught his eye and he picked it up with his cast free hand.

_Dinner and movie with The Rivera's. There's a box of Mac and Cheese in the pantry that you can make for __dinner. Hope you feel better. xo Lena_

Brandon took the note and threw it in the trash and thought that it would probably be best if he took a shower first so that he didn't smell like sweat and BO. He ran back up to his room to get fresh clothes when he thought about his phone.

He walked over to his phone and sent a new message.

**Hey, just woke up. I'm surprised I slept this long. My family's out, did you want to stop by?**

He tapped his fingers on his phone, waiting for Callie's response. When it finally did, Brandon opened eagerly.

**Ya sure! What time should I come? Like twenty minutes?**

Brandon confirmed the time and quickly hurried to the shower. If Callie was going to be here in twenty minutes he had to look and smell good in less than twenty minutes.

After a quick shower, Brandon tried to stop his bed hair by truing to comb it down. It seemed to be curlier and messier than ever to Brandon's dislike. He gave up on his hair and got dressed quickly but had some trouble fitting his cast through his shirt. He decided on a short sleeve shirt since that seemed the easiest to wear with a cast on and pulled on dark jeans right as the doorbell rang.

Brandon went quickly down the steps again and to the front door. He took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Hi Brandon!" Callie smiled at him.

"H-hi!" It took Brandon a minute to reply because he was absolutely blown away by Callie. She was wearing a gray sweatshirt and her hair was curled almost wavy. Her smile was utterly captivating and Brandon was still amazed as he let Callie walk in. She looked around still smiling as Brandon closed the door.

"Welcome." he said, gesturing his hand around the house.

"I brought a movie that you might like." Callie said, holding up a movie. Brandon squinted to read the title of the movie.

"Paranormal Activity?" Brandon asked.

"Oh I thought I grabbed a different movie I can run back and get it-" Callie said.

"No no, it's fine." Brandon said, holding out his hand.

"So that's the cast?" Callie asked, looking at Brandon's outstretched hand.

Brandon nodded as Callie's eyes went from the cast to his forehead. His stomach chose the time to rumble, making him think about the box of Mac and Cheese that was in the pantry.

"Um, I'm gonna make some dinner." he said awkwardly as he moved past Callie to the kitchen.

"Do you want to make it for you?" Callie asked, following him into the kitchen.

"It's just Mac and Cheese, no big deal." Brandon said but Callie insisted on making it for him.

Finally giving up, Brandon sat at the island watching Callie make the Mac and Cheese for him. She stood over the pot of boiling Mac and Cheese and stirred it, watching the pot with concentration. Brandon smiled small at Callie making food for him and soon enough, a bowl of delicious looking Mac and Cheese was placed in front of him.

"Wow Callie, it looks really good." Brandon said as Callie sat down next to him.

"It better be." she laughed. Brandon took a bite and gave Callie a thumbs up, causing Callie to smile. Callie reached up to touch the bandage covering Brandon's stitches and Brandon squeezed his eyes shut.

"That's where they are?" Callie asked.

"Yup." Brandon said, popping the p.

Callie nodded and let Brandon continue to eat, making small talk the whole time.

After rinsing his dish and cleaning up, they made their way for the living room where they would watch Paranormal Activity.

Brandon bent down and took the disc out, placing it in the dish as Callie sat down on the couch.

"Have you ever seen this movie?" Brandon asked.

"No, actually I think it's my dad's. I grabbed it on accident." Callie said, shrugging. Brandon smirked, knowing how scary the Paranormal Activity movies are.

He sat down next to Callie, a good foot or so apart. The title screen appeared and Brandon turned off the light next to him. The sun had gone down all the way now and darkness was among them. Brandon pressed play and the movie began, it wouldn't be long until Callie would get scared.

Sure enough, Brandon was right. Within fifteen minutes Callie was sitting next to him and whispering really fast, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." There was a jump scare and Callie shot towards Brandon and pushed right up against him. "Ok I'm scared." she said, burying her face in his chest. Brandon who wasn't very scared, liked the fact Callie was and put an arm around her.

Callie immediately snuggled up next to him and wrapped an arm around his middle. Brandon who quite liked the feeling, smiled as the movie continued. He placed his chin on the top of Callie's head, the smell of her hair reaching his nostrils.

The sound of rain could be heard from outside now, making a light pattering noise. Instead of listening to the movie, Brandon was more focused on Callie's breathing and how her body would rise and fall with every breath she took. The movie continued with a few more jump scares from the movie and squeals from Callie who buried her face in Brandon again. Brandon silently thanked God that he remembered to put on extra deodorant.

When the movie finally ended, Brandon and Callie sat for a minute looking at credits roll by. Brandon glanced at the clock, 8:56PM.

"Almost nine." he said casually looking at Callie in the dark.

"I should get going." Callie said.

"Yeah, Jude will be looking for you." Brandon said, standing up to get the disc. He retrieved it and placed it in the disc holder and handed it to Callie.

He walked her to the door and opened it for her, the sound of crickets immediately filled his ears. Callie stepped through the doorway and turned around to face Brandon.

"Well goodnight." she said, her hair looked almost golden from the porch light shining down on her.

"Goodnight." Brandon said, smiling.

Callie awkwardly turned around to walk away until, "Wait." Brandon said, he reached out and grabbed her elbow and pulled her back.

She turned around confused and Brandon prayed that she wouldn't slap him after what he was going to do. He put a hand on her cheek and smiled, looking down at her lips and pulling her in.

What he felt was better than he had imagined. When he kissed Talya before, he didn't feel anything compared to this. Brandon felt happy, it was nothing like he had ever felt before. Callie was kissing him back and he felt on top of the world.

When they finally broke apart, Callie smiled up at Brandon. "Goodnight Brandon." she said simply.

"Goodnight." Brandon said as he watched her leave the porch steps and disappear into the darkness.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello lovlies!**

**I'm so so sorry I didn't update last night, I had three tests to study for and tonight I had softball tryouts.**

**I hope you guys are all enjoying/enjoyed the winter finale of the Fosters! There are a lot of feels going on tonight! :( (**live thoughts as I was watching the show)

**SOME MESSED UP SHIT HAPPENED ON THAT EPISODE, I SWITCHED IT IT WAS GROSS! WTF BRANDON! BLEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**

**ew you do not even know the disgust.**

**I'm pretty sure Jude is gay and I am IN LOVE with that. Omg he's so, Jude! OMG I love him so much.**

**Kinda upset that Callie and Wyatt are gonna get back together but ya know Brallie has to come back because all of us will fucking stop watching the the show like I so will if they don't get together.**

**AM I A FUCKING PSYCHIC OR WHAT! DID THE FIGHT ON THE SHOW NOT HAPPEN IN MY STORY!**

**Hope you like this update! Thanks for 100 reviews in 10 days!**

**xx**

**-Audrey**

* * *

On Monday, many students came up to Brandon, asking how he got stitches and broke his wrist. Others also asked to sign his cast, Brandon quickly gained a numerous amount of signatures and messages. Teachers seemed to baby him, asking if he was ok and excusing him from his homework. Brandon who didn't really like the fact that he was being babied, accepted it because he didn't have to hand in his English paper that he didn't finish. They all seemed to feel bad for him because he wouldn't be able to play piano for a while. Brandon wasn't as upset about it as he thought, some things made it better. Such as,

"Hey." Callie said, smiling and sitting down across from him at lunch.

"Hi." Brandon said, looking up from eating his sandwich.

"So I hear you've risen to popularity because of your injuries." Callie said. "I'm surprised that you don't have a group of followers listening to your every word."

"Oh shut up." Brandon said, flicking a shred of lettuce at Callie. Callie dodged it and pulled out a permanent marker.

"Can I sign?" she asked, laughing.

Brandon held out his right arm (**FYI, the part where Wyatt beats up Brandon and crushes his arm...did that not just happen in the spring finale but someone else did it? I mean now Brandon can't play piano in the show...i'm psychic you guys I really am) **and Callie rotated it, looking for a spot to write something.

"Not much room left." she said, looking for a spot.

"Here." Brandon said, finding a blank spot.

Callie smiled and began writing on it, covering it to make sure Brandon couldn't see. When she was done, she closed the marker up and put it in her bag. Brandon turned to look at the message Callie wrote.

"Brandon," it said. "my first friend here and a guy who's had my back since I got here. You're amazing. 3 - Callie."

Brandon smiled and looked at Callie who was smiling back at him. "Nice note." he said.

"I would've written more but there wasn't a lot of space..." Callie said.

"Don't worry about it, it's the best one I've got." Brandon said, looking at his cast. A few people had drawn smilies and music notes.

Callie looked down at her lunch, Brandon smiled while she picked up her turkey sandwich.**  
**

"So Callie, did you want to stay after school with me?" Brandon asked.

"And do what?" Callie asked.

"I have things planned." Brandon said smiling.

"Hmm, I'll have to check...the millions of guys waiting at my feet might want to take me on a date." she said. Brandon almost believed her until she cracked a grin. "I'm joking."

"I know." Brandon said, though he didn't sound like he knew.

* * *

The rest of the school day seemed to go on for ages. When the bell finally rang, Brandon packed up his stuff as fast as he could and put it in his backpack, racing from the classroom before anyone had blinked. He ran towards Callie's final class and waited outside of her door, attempting to flatten his hair while he waited for her to exit her class. Before Callie walked out, Wyatt appeared, staring down Brandon and giving him a look of disgust. Brandon glared back as Wyatt walked off, kicking the lockers as he went.

"Brandon." someone said in front of him. Brandon turned back from looking at Wyatt's retreating back. Callie was looking up at him, holding a textbook in her arms.

"Can I take that from you?" Brandon offered, holding out his hand.

"No thanks I got it. I have to drop it off at my locker." Callie said, beginning to walk down the hallway towards her locker. Brandon followed suit and caught up with her quickly. The people in the halls passed and looked at Brandon and Callie, but Brandon didn't give it much thought. He saw Talya walk by, her "clique" at either side as she exited the school. She glared at the both of them and kept walking. Geez, exes these days.

Brandon disregarded Talya's form of acknowledgement and continued to follow Callie to her locker. When they finally stopped at her locker, Callie looked at Brandon looking a bit uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" Brandon asked, confused.

"Nothing, but your ex. She's kinda..."

"Is unforgiving? Yeah I know." Brandon said. "You should've seen what Wyatt did."

"Ok that I don't understand since he should be thanking you that you didn't snitch on him." Callie said. "I mean, yes we aren't dating anymore but at least we're still friends."

She placed a few more books in her locker and shut it angrily. "Well he does sort of have a reason, I kind of broke you up."

"It was for my own good Brandon, what if he did that to me?" Callie asked. Brandon, who was glad that Callie saw his way in things, almost smirked at remembering Wyatt's reaction.

"How'd he take it?" Brandon asked.

"Take what?" Callie asked.

"You breaking up with him."

"As any person who had feelings for the other should. Badly."

"He didn't hurt you did he?"

"No of course not. He just...got mad at you."

Brandon and Callie exited the school, Brandon sort of in control of where they were going. They walked down the grassy slope towards the beach that the school privately owned. The beach had always been one of Brandon's favorite places to get inspiration. The hot sand and the blue waves just stimulated his mind. Now he had two things that inspired him in one place.

Brandon ditched his bag at the top of the beach where the grass and sand connected and kicked off his Vans. "What are you doing?" Callie asked, as Brandon rolled up his jeans.

"Having a bit of fun that's all." Brandon said before taking off towards the waves.

"WHOOOO HOO!" Brandon said, running towards the tide. Seagulls taking off from the ground as he sprinted towards them, making the sky fill with white dots. Callie watched Brandon as he slowed down at the edge of the water and put his feet in. He turned around and cupped his hands over his mouth, "The water's great!" Brandon called to Callie.

Callie took off her own shoes and walked towards the water's edge where Brandon was literally testing the waters by walking deeper and deeper in.

"Brandon if you get wet you're going to freeze." Callie said, crossing her arms.

"Who's gonna stop me?" Brandon asked, going deeper. "Come on live a little!" He bent down and splashed Callie causing her to yell out in shock as water dripped from her hair.

"Brandon!" she said, trying to get the water off.

"Chicken!" Brandon said, splashing her again.

Callie glared at Brandon and finally said, "Fine you want me to live a little? Here!" She charged at Brandon and jumped on him, causing him to fall back into the waves. They both went under water, well, partially. They weren't that far out but were far enough that Brandon's head got dunked under and Callie got pretty wet as well.

"What was that for?" Brandon said, spluttering and trying to stand up.

"You said to live a little so I did." Callie said, standing up as well.

"You're lucky I kept my arm above water." Brandon said, pointing to his cast. "This things is really a draw back."

"Once again, really sorry." Callie said.

"Why did he even get mad at me?"

"Because he heard about what happened at the dance."

"From who?" Brandon asked, as they walked back to shore, both feeling very cold.

"Well a lot of people saw us, his friends probably saw and snitched." Callie said, as they made their way towards their backpacks.

"I'm freezing." Brandon said.

"Me too." Callie replied, picking up her shoes and walking towards the grassy slope with Brandon.

"Good thing I left my extra clothes in my locker." Brandon said, mentally high fiving himself.

"You do that too? Everyone else thinks it's weird." Callie said.

"Nah. You would need them...for situations like this." Brandon said, motioning to the wet close that were clinging to his body.

Hey Brandon." Callie said, pulling Brandon's hand for him to slow down.

"Yeah?" Brandon asked, looking at Callie.

"I wanted to thank you for all you've done. This has been the best weeks of my life." Callie said, looking up at Brandon.

"It has been for me too." Brandon said, smiling the special smile he saved for Callie.

Callie looked at Brandon and put her hand on the back on his neck, pulling him down. She kissed him gently, Brandon placed his non broken hand on Callie's waist and pulled her in closer. The kiss became deeper, both of them became more desperate as their lips moved. Nothing could ruin this moment, except,

"Ah I knew there was something between you two." someone said to Brandon's right.


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello everyone! Thanks for the reviews and PMs! I hope I answered all of them well and I love discussing the episodes with you guys!**

**Anyways, a late update again (like a whole fucking week late ) because I just got back from softball...still haven't done my homework yet.**

**Oh well, I'll do it when I'm done.**

**I'm really excited for Season 2 this summer! Hopefully it will be good!**

**(**NOTICE: **When this story ****finishes, I have some ideas for another Brallie story in mind with similar "Callie isn't a foster" plots. It's in the works and will be posted once this is done,)**

**Love you guys, **

**(trying to keep this story as non cliche as possible)**

**-Audrey**

**P.s.**

**Good news! **I've been working really hard on a video/trailer for this fan fiction! I'll post it on Youtube and it should be up by the next chapter.

* * *

"Jude what are you doing here!" Callie said, as Jude ran up to her and pulled her into a hug.

"I had to stay after to work on a project with my friend. I knew you and Brandon were dating!" he said, letting go of Callie and smiling widely at her.

"Jude, we aren't dating." Callie said, touching her brother on the shoulder. Jude smiled faltered slightly but he frowned and looked back up at Callie.

"Than why were you kissing?" he asked.

"Uh, sometimes people do that." Brandon said, as they walked back to the school. Jude continued to question Callie and Brandon as they went, trying to find ways to prove that Brandon and Callie were dating.

When they reached the school, both blushing red and feeling awkward from all Jude's persistent questions, Brandon cut Jude off mid question.

"How about we get ice-cream?" he asked, looking at both Jude and Callie for approval.

Jude smiled widely and looked at Callie. "Can we Callie?" he asked, eagerly.

Callie checked her phone and looked at Jude, "I don't see why not." she said, smiling.

Jude seemed to have forgotten all about catching Brandon and Callie kissing since the subject never came up again. Instead, Jude filed them in on the project that he was doing with his friend Connor, waving his hands around energetically.

Brandon noticed something on Jude that made him look closer. "Is that nail polish?" Brandon asked curiously, pointing at Jude's hands. Jude suddenly stopped short of his story and shoved his hands in his pocket.

"Jude I told you not to wear that to school." Callie whispered, but it was loud enough for Brandon to hear.

"I like it." Brandon said, smiling at Jude. Jude looked at Brandon, almost surprised at his opinion of his painted nails. Callie looked almost as shocked and surprised as Jude. "You should paint mine neon orange sometime."

Jude smiled at Brandon who smiled back and held out his hand. "Can I see them?" Brandon asked nicely. Jude slid his hands out of his pockets and slowly held them up to Brandon who examined the fire truck red nails.

"Those are pretty cool, you are definitely doing mine sometime." Brandon said kindly.

"The boys at school said some mean stuff." Jude said.

"What? What boys? Jude what did they say?" Callie asked, getting defensive.

"Well they obviously don't know how cool nail polish is." Brandon said simply. "Don't worry about what they think, what does your friend Connor think?"

Jude shrugged, "He didn't really say anything, I don't know if that's better or worse."

"Well if he's a true friend, he'll accept you for who you are." Brandon said. He caught Callie's eye, who was smiling at him.

* * *

They went to Dairy Queen, where Brandon bought their ice-cream and let Jude get 'The Brownie' Earthquake sundae which Callie tried to prevent him from getting. Brandon being Brandon, let Jude get whatever he wanted no matter how big.

They sat down at a table to eat their ice-cream. Brandon had gotten a strawberry cheesecake blizzard, Jude with his gigantic Brownie Earthquake that was covered in hot fudge, and Callie with her chocolate mint blizzard. Jude and Callie sat next to each other, leaving Brandon to sit across from them and exchange small smiles with Callie. Jude felt more like a brother than Jesus did, but that was probably because he spent more time with Jude than he did Jesus. Brandon knew that it was probably weird that Jude felt more like a brother to him than Jesus but he shrugged this off by eating another large bite of his ice-cream.

"Is that your exgirlfriend?" Jude asked Brandon, Jude's eye flickered over Brandon's shoulder. Brandon turned slowly to see Talya and her friend sitting at booth eating ice-cream. Talya looked over quickly and glared at them, Brandon wanted to say something smart to her from across the room but decided that it wasn't worth it. He turned back around in his chair and nodded, finishing his ice-cream and scraping the last of it out of the cup.

"She probably hates me." Callie muttered, looking into the cup of her own ice-cream.

"It's me she hates." Brandon assured Callie. "She was just upset I didn't feel the same way about her as I did before."

Jude, who had barely made a dent in his sundae, called Talya something that caused Callie to push him on the shoulder and gasp. "Jude! Didn't I ever tell you not to call someone that?"

"Why not? People say that at school." Jude muttered.

"Doesn't mean it's right." Callie said, sternly. Brandon watched Callie reprimand Jude, she had a lot of motherly attitude about her. She probably had a part in raising Jude, more as his mother than his sister at times. He admired Callie from this, how she could help Jude grow up to be the young man he was becoming and still be more of his sister than mother.

"What else do they say at school?" Callie asked with concern.

"Gay." Jude said, scooping up some brownie but put his spoon back down and placed his hands in his lap.

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"They go, 'that's so gay.'" Jude said. "But today was different."

"Different?" Brandon asked.

"They said, 'you're gay.' to me." Jude said sadly.

"Because of the nail polish?" Callie asked. Jude nodded and pushed his ice-cream away.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, looking at their hands or ice creams. "Don't let them get to you, they'll say mean things to just to make you feel bad. They used to call me Bed Head." Brandon said.

"Bed Head?" Jude asked.

Brandon pointed at his hair, "I could never get my hair to look neat, it always looked messy like this. Almost like bed head."

Jude tried to hold back a smile as he watched Brandon.

"You know the vice principal? They used to call her mean things when she was younger too." Brandon said. "She is mixed raced, so her classmates called her Oreo. After she told everyone that she was a lesbian they called her a Klon-dike bar. And you know what she did?"

"What?" Jude asked.

"She handed out Klondike bars to the whole student body."

"I don't think that can help me. I can't hand out gay. It isn't an object." Jude said.

"No, but the point is, you have to show them that it doesn't bother you and they stop. They never called her the name again after that. Just laugh along or do something along the lines of that to show that you don't care." Brandon said. "Now do you need help with that sundae?"

* * *

After eating their ice-cream and walking home, Jude invited Brandon inside. Brandon couldn't deny the invitation, Jude was practically pulling him into the house. Jude pulled Brandon through the house and into their kitchen. "Sit here, I'll be right back." Jude said, pointing to a kitchen chair at the dining table. Brandon sat down and placed his bag at his feet.

Callie entered the kitchen and sat next to Brandon, "I have a feeling I know what he's going to do." Callie said. Jude appeared seconds later, carrying a small wooden box and a paper towel. He placed the paper towel flat on the table and picked up Brandon's hands and placed them on the towel. He then opened the small wooden box that was filled with different colored nail polish bottles.

"Pick a color." Jude said, sitting down in the chair across from Brandon. Brandon peered into the box to look at all the colors, there was a large variety and Brandon had finally decided on a vibrant neon orange.

As Jude unscrewed the cap, Brandon became nervous. Not of being called a girl or something, but not knowing what to do on how to pain nails. He didn't know what the feeling was when pain was put on your nails and wasn't sure if he would flinch and ruin the whole thing.

"Are you ready?" Jude asked, looking up at Jude.

"You don't have to do this." Callie said to Brandon.

"No, no I want to. Just do my left hand because of my cast." Brandon said.

Jude started with Brandon's first finger, the feeling was a bit cold but Brandon didn't mind. He watched as his pink colored nail became a neon orange. This continued with all his fingers on his left hand.

"Don't move it now." Jude said, placing Brandon's left hand. Brandon looked down, the side with his cast didn't have nail polish, while the other did. It was an odd feeling but Brandon smiled at Jude who was waiting for his approval.

"I love them." Brandon said. Jude's smile widened as he began cleaning up the nail polish and towel.

"You can take it off when you get home or something." Callie leaned over and whispered to Brandon.

"Are you kidding me? I love it." Brandon said, kissing her cheek.

"You are so more accepting of him than Wyatt was." she said smiling. "He didn't get the whole nail polish thing."

"It's different. But who likes boring people?" Brandon said, admiring his nails.


	13. Chapter 13

The video is up!

To watch the video on my YouTube channel, click the link in my profile! It's worth a watch, I spent a lot of time on it.

Thank you all for your reviews! I really like helping out on your stories and giving you ideas!

**Good news: I gotta new story! You guys should check it out!**

-Audrey

* * *

"Brandon," someone whispered to Brandon. Brandon turned in the direction of the voice on his left.

His friend Aiden was leaning over at him from his math desk. Callie, who was on Brandon's right, stopped working on the math problem to look at Aiden who was on Brandon's left.

"What?" Brandon whispered, quickly looking at their math teacher's desk to see if she was looking at them. When he saw her looking down at a book propped over in front of her he decided to keep talking to Aiden. "What do you want?"

"What's with the nails?" Aiden asked, pointing to Brandon's left hand with his pencil. Confused, Brandon looked down at his hand only to remember that the neon orange nail polish was still there from the previous night. Brandon had forgotten to take it off and without knowing, went to school with it still on.

"Long story." Brandon mumbled, catching the eye of his math teacher who was giving him 'the look'. Callie returned to her work as well, but flashed Brandon a sly smile that looked as if she was trying to hold back the laughter Brandon smiled back and turned back to his work, but in the rest of the time they had to work on it, he wasn't able to finish because all he could focus on was Callie's smile.

At the end of school, the bell rang as usual, startling Brandon enough that he jumped. He quickly packed his things and hurried out of the library, knocking into a few students who were heading towards their buses and cars, calling Brandon angry names after he bumped into them. He sat on the stair railing and slid down it, jumping down to land on the ground. A few more students gave Brandon looks but Brandon disregarded them as he headed towards the entrance of the school.

After arriving back at home, Brandon sat down on his bed and closed his eyes. The cool fall breeze was coming through his window, making his hair part to the side of his head and tickling his forehead uncomfortably. Brandon frowned and raked his fingers through his hair quickly to stop the uncomfortable feeling on his forehead. Other than that, it was peaceful lying there and listening to the birds singing and the light wind rustling the leaves of the trees. He could hear the sounds of young boys, talking loudly and probably heading towards the basketball court.

Something seemed odd about these voices though. The boy's laughs sounded mean and taunting, their voices sounded like they were jeering each other on.

"Come on, gay boy. Whatcha gonna do about it huh?" he heard one say.

"Are you gonna call for your sister? The one from juvie? She can't help you now!" another said.

"Leave me alone!"

Brandon shot up in bed, recognizing the voice to be of Jude. He sprung out of bed and peered out his window. Outside his house was a group of boys. All of them had school bags on their shoulders and were gathered in a circle, closing in on a smaller boy in the middle. One of the boys had grabbed the smaller boys, backpack, ripping it open and taking out books.

"You read?" the boy holding the book asked, laughing cruelly. "What a loser."

"Stop it!" Jude said, trying to make a grab for the book, but the boy was too tall for him.

By now, Brandon had fled his room and ran down the steps. He was making his way towards the group of boys that were terrorizing Jude.

Another boy had grabbed one of Jude's wrists and was examining his hand. "Nail polish? What the fuck?" the boy asked, squinting at his nails. "Want to be a girl now or something?"

Brandon was yards away from the boys now.

"What boy wears nail polish?" the boy who held Jude's book asked, tossing his book into Brandon's lawn. He raised a fist while two boys held Jude's arms behind his back. Right before he was about to throw the punch at Jude who was squinting, prepared for the blow, Brandon grabbed the boy's fist and whirled him around.

The boy looked completely startled by the six foot boy towering over him and holding his fist with a tight grip.

"What do you think you're doing?" Brandon asked, glaring at the boy. The boy did not seem as confident in himself as he did ten seconds ago.

Jude suddenly fell to the ground, the boys holding him had released him and backed away quickly.

Brandon tightened his grip on the boys clenched fist harder, making the boy wince. "Nothing. Just messing around." he said, wincing in pain.

"You know what's funny Dennis," Brandon said, looking directly at the boy whose fist he was holding. "I wouldn't judge people on what they like to do, from what your grandmother says, I hear you're very fond of taking care of her kittens and hope to be a veterinarian someday."

Dennis' face turned to shock, "So?" he asked.

"So," Brandon said, loosening his grip. "Would you like it if you were going to get beat up because of that?"

Dennis whipped his fist out from Brandon's grip and backed away, massaging his knuckles. Brandon raised his eyebrows at Dennis, his eyes scanning the boys.

"Come on," Dennis said gruffly, he turned on his heels and ran down the street in the other direction. His friends followed, quickly turning down the other street at the corner and out of sight.

"Come on Jude." Brandon said, holding out his non casted hand to Jude who was still sitting on the ground. Jude grabbed his hand as Brandon pulled him up. Brandon turned and grabbed Jude's book, examining the title. "Huckleberry Finn?" Brandon asked.

Jude nodded and placed the book back in his backpack and zipped it up. He stood back up, still not saying a word and threw his backpack over his shoulder. He averted his eyes from Brandon as he started walking down the street towards his house. Confused, Brandon jogged to catch up with him and tried to start a conversation.

"What are you having for dinner?" Brandon asked casually. Jude didn't respond, he looked at his shoes as he walked.

Brandon frowned, "Okayyy." Brandon said, realizing that Jude didn't want to talk.

Jude remained silent as they arrived at the driveway to his house. Brandon half expected Jude to say thank you but instead Jude turned to Brandon, looking a bit angry.

"I didn't need your help. I could've stopped them on my own." he said angrily.

Brandon was highly surprised at what Jude said, but before Brandon could respond, Jude was walking down the driveway and towards the front door of his house. Confused at why Jude got all defensive, Brandon tried to convince himself that helping Jude was the right thing to do. If he had just left Jude to get beaten up he probably wouldn't have forgiven himself. So why was Jude so angry that he helped him instead of stand by like a bystander? Wasn't Brandon obligated to help Jude? Especially when he was in peril?

Brandon decided to shake this off temporarily as he trekked back to his own house, the same few questions running through his brain as he reviewed what just happened.

Should he have helped Jude? Yes, he was sure of that.

But did he say the right things to those boys? Maybe that is what Jude was mad about.

* * *

**Okay, honestly, this was not my favorite chapter writing. Very short and basically a filler.**

**I am in DESPERATE need of ideas, please, please, if you have any, please send me a Private Message or a review. I am out of ideas and have no idea what to do next! **

**I am begging you guys! Help me out!**

**-Audrey**


	14. Chapter 14

"Who was that girl you were just with?" Stef asked Brandon the next Thursday.

"What?" Brandon asked, placing his bag on the ground and sitting down at the island. Stef had gotten home early and was starting to make dinner, glancing out the window to find someone familiar, walking hand and hand with Brandon down the street on the way home from school, laughing as if they didn't have a care in the world. She knew who it was, and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

"That girl with the wavy brown hair. The one you were walking with." Stef said, casually. Brandon froze and didn't move, as if any movement would set off a bomb of more suspicion. Stef stopped shredding the cheese to turn to look at Brandon with a stern glance. Brandon was looking at his casted hand, not even blinking. "One of Talya's friends?"

Stef knew perfectly well that Callie Jacob was not Talya's friend. The delinquent who smashed her neighbor's car and yelling profanities about the son whose car she smashed with a baseball bat.

"No." Brandon said. Stef wasn't surprised that Brandon didn't lie, if he did lie, that would have been a sign that she was influencing him...maybe she should check his room for drugs and alcohol. What else could he be hiding?

"What's her name?" Stef asked.

Brandon made a funny grunting noise and coughed.

"What was that?" Stef asked.

"Callie." Brandon said louder.

"Ohh...Callie Jacob?"

"How did you know?" Brandon asked.

"Brandon, I'm a police officer, she...doesn't have a spotless record."

"It's not what you think! She's misunderstood!" Brandon argued, springing from his chair.

"Misunderstood? Brandon, she smashed her neighbor's car with a baseball bat."

"She didn't mean it like that!"

"Then what did she mean? Do you even know?"

No...Brandon didn't. He frowned at the fact that he didn't know why Callie did it. She mentioned briefly that it was a misunderstanding and that the guy totally deserved it but never said how...

"How about you have her over for dinner tomorrow night?" Stef said casually.

"How about no." Brandon said, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl.

Stef raised her eyebrows and looked at Brandon who cringed. "Fine, maybe if she isn't busy."

"I just think that she should meet the family, you know because she's your girlfriend." Stef said.

Brandon didn't say anything but instead nodded and left the kitchen towards his room.

* * *

At exactly 7pm there was a knock at the door, causing everyone chatting in the kitchen to stop and look at the front door. Brandon got to his feet and made his way to the front, he tried fixing his hair one last time in the mirror before turning to open the door. He felt as if he was on a roller coaster ride, his stomach felt as if it was doing cartwheels inside of him, threatening to make whatever he was going to eat tonight reappear a few hours later.

The kitchen was now silent as they waited for the arrival of the guest. The door made a creaking noise as Brandon opened it, the only noise that could be heard except the sound of crickets coming from outside. Brandon's stomach did more flips as his eyes locked upon the smiling figure that stood before him...but he knew this wasn't from being nervous. Brandon smiled back at the girl before him with her wavy short brown hair and gray knit sweater. She looked beautiful and Brandon wanted to tell her that but couldn't find the words forming.

"Hey." she said, her face glowing from the porch lights.

"Hi." Brandon replied, stepping aside to let her in. In her hands she had a tray of cookies, which she clutched onto as she stepped through the threshold of Brandon's house. Brandon shut the door behind her and turned to see his whole family in the kitchen watching Callie. Callie froze on the spot and began walking slowly towards the kitchen. Lena was the first one to react by exiting the kitchen and coming to meet Callie with a bright smile on her face. Brandon sighed with relief that at least one of his family members was going to act normal.

"Hi Callie." she said with a smile.

"Hi Ms. Adams." Callie said, smiling.

"Oh please, call me Lena here. I don't mind." she said casually. From inside the kitchen, Stef coughed. "We're having barbecued chicken tonight if that's okay with you."

"That sounds really good." Callie said, following Lena into the kitchen with Brandon coming up in the rear.

When they entered, Brandon looked at Jesus, Mariana, and Stef who were all standing around the island in the kitchen. Mariana, although she looked hesitant, straightened up and offered her freshly manicured hand out to Callie. "Hi, I'm Mariana Foster." she said, smiling.

"Callie Jacob." Callie replied, shaking her hand.

Jesus, who was leaning on the island in his red polo in khakis, straightened up as well and with much self confidence, offered his hand to Callie. "Name's Jesus." he said. Mariana elbowed him in the stomach and Stef gave him a warning glare. Jesus cleared his throat and cut the act immediately. "I mean..I'm Jesus." he said. Callie took his hand and shook it before turning to Stef.

"Mom this is Callie. Callie this is my mom Stef." Brandon said awkwardly.

"Hi, it's...nice to see you again." Callie said, offering her hand. She didn't say this to Stef in anyway of dislike or displeasure. She was polite and sweet, Brandon assumed that they had met before because of her time in juvey. Stef didn't take Callie's awaiting hand, and only moved when the kitchen timer beeped to signal the chicken on the grill had finished. She left in a rush, saying she didn't want the chicken to burn and that they should all get into the dining room before she got back.

Brandon led Callie into the dining room behind the rest of his family and sat down in the seat next to her. Lena sat across from him and Mariana next to her, Jesus sat next to Callie and Mariana at one head of the table and an empty seat next to Brandon and Lena was Stef's spot at the other head of the table. There was a bowl of salad already on the table that Lena began serving as well as a plate of asparagus and baked potatoes.

When Stef returned with the steaming chicken, she gave everyone each a piece and sat down without another word.

Halfway through the dinner and many awkward dead end conversations, Stef finally spoke up.

"So, Callie, how are you doing at school?" she questioned. Brandon could tell that Callie was going to be put on the spot of the rest of the dinner and couldn't help feeling bad for her.

"Well, I've been getting B's and A's for the most part. I got a C+ once but that was only in Spanish because I can't speak it for my life." she said.

Stef nodded, "And you haven't been getting into any trouble since you started going to this school?"

Callie shook her hand and looked down at her plate.

"Listen, I don't want my son dating someone that could be a bad influence to her-"

"She's not a bad influence mom! How many times do I have to tell you?" Brandon said, dropping his fork onto his plate with a clatter.

"Ms. Foster, I totally understand that you care for your son and hope that he makes the right choices but I've been keeping in touch with my parole officer and staying out of trouble. That was a one time thing and it was a very immature thing for me to do. I grew up a bit since then and I know what is right and wrong now." Callie said. She sounded so grown up that Brandon found his mouth hanging open in shock. He was not expecting a response from her that mature.

Stef watched Callie for a few seconds, who looked back anxiously.

"I better not hear about him getting into any trouble while he's with you, Brandon has a bright future ahead of him and I don't need someone jeopardizing that." Stef said.

"I won't, Ms. Foster." Callie said confidently.

* * *

"Well that was...eventful..." Brandon said, on the porch of his house after dinner. Callie, holding the tray of leftover cookies nodded and looked down.

"Look I'm really sorry about my mom she-"

"Don't be." Callie interrupted. "She loves you and wants to make sure that you have a good life."

Brandon smiled at how understanding Callie was. "Those were really amazing cookies by the way, be sure to tell Jude that." Brandon said smiling.

"Well you inspired him when you left those desserts for him all the time." she smiled.

Brandon checked his watch on his wrist, 8:47pm.

"It's getting late." he said. "Did you maybe want to go do something after everyone goes to sleep?" he whispered in her ear.

"Brandon, you heard what your mom said!" Callie whispered back.

"So? She'll never know."

Callie looked at Brandon for a few seconds, as if having an internal debate.

"Fine, text me ok?" she said.

Brandon smiled, "Goodnight Callie. See you tomorrow." he said, winking at the last statement.

"Goodnight Brandon. See you tomorrow." she said back, smiling at the fact that they knew something no one else did.

Brandon bent down and kissed her, savoring the soft feeling of her lips. After pulling away, Brandon watched as Callie made her way down the porch steps and towards her own house until her body was engulfed in darkness.

He smiled to himself and entered the house again. His family was in the kitchen doing dishes and talking about things going on at the police station. Making sure that they knew he had come inside, Brandon walked noisily up the stairs and to his room.

Callie's response had been extremely well thought out, he doubted she and thought of it at the spur of the moment. It was probably well practiced and gone over quite a few times. He looked out his window and down the street to see Callie's house, her bedroom light was on but her shades were closed. He could only see the light shining through the shades. Brandon was very familiar with the room when he spent afternoons with Callie and Jude at their house when their father wasn't home. When he broke his hand wasn't the only time that he had been there.

He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened his messages to Callie.

**Sounds to me like they'll be asleep by 12am.**

A few minutes later the reply came in from Callie.

**Lol great. Jude will be going to bed soon so it'll be easy for me. My dad has been asleep for an hour already according to Jude.**

**See you then.**

**See you then :)**


End file.
